tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52358872018-03-18T18:58:40.436-06:00Midnight RamblingsThe official blog of Mark Cappis, where he discusses life, the universe, and everything. Oh, and movies.Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.comBlogger2835125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-22248572236389439532018-03-15T00:30:00.000-06:002018-03-15T00:30:01.546-06:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, as I watch a movie and blog about it. Time to dip into one of this past summer's biggest blockbusters, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol._2" target="_blank"><i>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</i></a>.&nbsp; This is in my notes at August 27, 2017.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol_2_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="259" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol_2_poster.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Many were predicting the first <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> to be Marvel's first flop.&nbsp; "Too obscure!" they said.&nbsp; "No name recognition!"&nbsp; "Too strange!"&nbsp; But many found its blend of outer-space action, good humour, and classic-rock-filled soundtrack to be a great blend.&nbsp; And then the question came, can they do it again?&nbsp; <br /><br />And it turns out yes...yes they can.&nbsp; And we got one last great outing for Star-Lord and the gang before they finally get mashed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper with <i>Avengers: Infinity War </i>coming in 2018.&nbsp; I think <i>Guardians of the Galaxy </i>has benefited from the fact that it's way off out in space, so it's been freer to do its own thing.&nbsp; <br /><br />Continuing the themes of the first film, <i>Vol. 2 </i>is all about family, as our heroes make new connections that make them question their own.&nbsp; Gamora heads to some form of reconciliation with here sister Nebula...both raised to be the ultimate warlord by Thanos, which evolved into a bitter rivalry.&nbsp; Drax find himself a surrogate daughter in the form of the naive Mantis.&nbsp; Rocket Racoon partners with Yondu for most of the film, and they get to the bottom of why they're such a-holes.&nbsp; <br /><br />But the main plot thrust comes from Star-Lord, aka Peter Quill, who finally comes face-to-face with his biological father.&nbsp; And the big surprise is his father is Ego the Living Planet, played by living legend Kurt Russell.&nbsp; Ego wants Quill to come home with him, and tap into that celestial power that he has.&nbsp; <br /><br />That's what struck me watching the film again tonight.&nbsp; For a gigantic sci-fi comic book epic, it's pretty talky, as the middle is filled with all the aforementioned characters just hanging out talking about their familial relationships.&nbsp; But that's a good thing.&nbsp; These kinds of films are so much better when we're given a moment to breath and get to know our characters.&nbsp; Makes the climax all the more sweeter when our heroes band back together to defeat Ego.&nbsp; <br /><br />And I'm always blown away by the choice of music that director James Gunn has used for these films.&nbsp; The use of classic rock and pop definitely gives the film a bit of a <i>Heavy Metal </i>vibe.&nbsp; You don't expect this kind of music to work for comic book space opera, but it turns out working so well.&nbsp; <br /><br />Not much to say.&nbsp; It was one of the biggest movies of the summer, so no doubt you saw it.&nbsp; <i>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 </i>is fun.<br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-31326641006256909632018-03-08T00:30:00.000-07:002018-03-08T00:30:25.326-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - Escape from New YorkHere we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin.&nbsp; I watch one of the DVDs or Blu-Rays I own, and then blog about, so it feels like I actually accomplish something when I sit at home watching movies instead of going out and having a life.&nbsp; Today, we roll out the 1981 classic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_New_York" target="_blank"><i>Escape from New York</i></a>.&nbsp; This is in my notes on August 26, 2017.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/EscapefromNYposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="256" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/EscapefromNYposter.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />I was picking up <i>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</i> the other day (spoiler warning:&nbsp; that'll probably be the next entry) when, right next to it, I saw the new limited edition Steelbook of <i>Escape from New York</i>, so I figured, "Why not?"<br /><br /><i>Escape from New York </i>is the cult classic sci-fi film from 1981.&nbsp; It was the last of the great dystopian sci-fi films of the 1970s.&nbsp; You know...films like <i>Soylent Green </i>and the later <i>Planet of the Apes </i>films that depicted the war against the humans and the apes for control of the planet.&nbsp; The idea that humanity is screwed, so we're all just trying so survive.&nbsp; Writer/director John Carpenter was starting to become a big deal, thanks to the success of <i>Halloween</i>, and this was a career turnaround for Kurt Russell, who was still primarily know for being a Disney kid of the 1970s.&nbsp; <br /><br />My first exposure to this universe was actually it's 1996 sequel, <i>Escape from L.A.&nbsp;</i> Summer vacation was winding down, I was ready to head back to my second year of college, and during back-to-school shopping, I figured, "What they hey?" &nbsp; So when I was back in school and finally got around to renting <i>Escape from New York </i>from good ol' Video Update, I was quite surprised.&nbsp; <i>Escape from LA&nbsp;</i>is a lot campier than <i>Escape from New York. &nbsp;</i>When you watch <i>Escape from LA&nbsp;</i>first, then <i>Escape from New York </i>feels more like the gritty reboot. <br /><br />Our opening narration tells us that, in the year 1988, the crime rate rose a shocking 400%, so the government responded by turning the USA into a police state.&nbsp; The island of Manhattan is walled off and turned into a maximum security prison.&nbsp; Inmates are dropped off, then left to fend for themselves.&nbsp; We then jump ahead to 1997.&nbsp; (Hey!&nbsp; I just realized I first saw this film in the year 1997.&nbsp; Cool).&nbsp; On the way to a peace summit, Air Force One goes down in Manhattan, and the inmates capture the President.&nbsp; Now, the race is on to get in, and get the President out before the summit starts.<br /><br />Enter our anti-hero, Snake Plissken, played by Kurt Russell.&nbsp; Legendary soldier of fortune, recently captured and sentenced to Manhattan for attempting to rob the Federal Reserve.&nbsp; The warden offers Plissken a deal:&nbsp; get the President out in 24 hours, and be given his freedom and a full pardon.&nbsp; To ensure Plissken's loyalty, he's injected with some microexplosives that detonate and blow off his head at the end of the allotted 24 hours.&nbsp; <br /><br />Plissken gets into Manhattan, and sees how the city has become a dark shadow of its former self.&nbsp; But he finds allies, like the upbeat cab driver Cabbie, and his old partner in crime, who now goes by Brain and has turned the New York Public Library into his personal fortress.&nbsp; <br />There's also Brain's girlfriend Maggie, who sadly doesn't get much to do.&nbsp; Plissken learns that the President has been captured by the Duke of New York, the crime-lord who now runs the city, and sees the President as his ticket to freedom.&nbsp; <br /><br />Man, watching it again tonight, I forgot how dark this film was.&nbsp; Not just in tone, but in colour-pallette.&nbsp; Even with the brightness turned up on my TV, I was having trouble making out what was going on.&nbsp; And it's almost not as action-packed as I remembered, making it more of a thriller than an action film.<br /><br />But the sight of a New York that's completely gone to hell is a striking one, and no wonder Snake Plissken is such a memorable character. Russell captures those archtypical silent bad ass tropes so wonderfully, that you just can't help but root for the guy.&nbsp; Even at the very end, when you realize that after all they've been through, Snake was the only guy who actually gave a shit about human life.&nbsp; <br /><br />Not much more to say here.&nbsp; But I do enjoy <i>Escape from New York,&nbsp;</i>and it's deserving of its cult status.<br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-6713478982149426552018-03-05T00:30:00.000-07:002018-03-05T00:30:16.343-07:00BackblogWell, I've had a backlog of things I wanted to blog about (a backblog?) and now that it's a snowed-in kind of weekend, may as well finally get around to blogging about it.<br /><br />I went into the city about a week ago.&nbsp; Didn't do much of note.&nbsp; And besides, the main purpose of blogging about my days in the city is plug the review of the latest movie I saw.&nbsp; So, I went into the city a week ago to catch <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_(film)" target="_blank"><i>Black Panther</i></a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GTXtdeJxgcM/WpxHZwGz7bI/AAAAAAAACR0/9QNCpZu3OU4v2QkIMxxxL5iZ9gPioa91QCLcBGAs/s1600/BlackPanther.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Black Panther poster" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1081" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GTXtdeJxgcM/WpxHZwGz7bI/AAAAAAAACR0/9QNCpZu3OU4v2QkIMxxxL5iZ9gPioa91QCLcBGAs/s400/BlackPanther.jpg" title="Black Panther poster" width="270" /></a></div><br /><i>Black Panther </i>is awesome, you guys.&nbsp; I mean, I'm on board for pretty much anything Marvel does at this point, so I knew I was going to like it.&nbsp; Taking place shortly after the events of <i>Captain America: Civil War, </i>our hero, T'Challa, is returning home to Wakanda to officially be crowned king.<br /><br />But, the nation of Wakanda is at a crossroads.&nbsp; Thanks to the country sitting on a massive deposit of vibranium -- the fictional metal that Captain America's shield is made of -- Wakanda is actually the most technologically advanced country in the world.&nbsp; But, they have chosen to hide this fact for centuries for fear that their technological wonders would fall into the wrong hands.&nbsp; The wrong hands being our villains, the international arms dealer Ulysses Klaue and soldier of fortune Erik Killmonger.&nbsp; And it's up to T'Challa, the Black Panther, to protect Wakanda from these threats and best plot a future for Wakanda.<br /><br />This is a film with a very beautiful supporting cast.&nbsp; The true scene stealer is Shuri, T'Challa's kid sister and Wakanda's chief scientist.&nbsp; She's responsible for a lot of Wakanda's technological marvels, and she's the Q to T'Challa's James Bond.&nbsp; And their sassy brother/sister banter is just perfect.&nbsp; Also fun is M'Baku, leader of the Jabari tribe, who never pledged loyalty to the throne of Wakanda.&nbsp; While he is a grim and serious defender of his people, M'Baku also has just enough of a sense of humour to mess with his rivals.<br /><br />And lets not forget our villain, Killmonger.&nbsp; It seems with Killmonger, Marvel is on their way to beating their villain problem, as they finally take the time to develop Killmonger and give us motivations for his villainy.&nbsp; He's a great villain with a plan that's not so evil, when&nbsp; you see things from his point of view.<br /><br />So, yeah.&nbsp; I don't need to tell you to go see it because it's kicking all kinds of butt at the box office.&nbsp; I give it 3.5 out of 4 Nibs.&nbsp; <a href="http://chaosinabox.com/index.php/2018/02/25/black-panther/" target="_blank">Full review on the website.</a><br /><br />Oh, and while also in the city, I broke down and bought the first in the latest from Lego in the Marvel Micro Minis collection.&nbsp; These little tiny Lego kits feature two go-karts piloted by a Marvel hero.&nbsp; I wound up collecting all of last&nbsp; year's, and I got the first for this&nbsp; year's, which is Thor vs. Loki.<br /><br /><br /><center><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BfozF2onEHw/" data-instgrm-version="8" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BfozF2onEHw/" style="color: black; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">I succumbed. As obsessed about in my blog a couple weeks ago, it’s the next batch of Marvel LEGO Karts. It’s Thor vs. Loki.</a></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/chaosinabox/" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank"> Mark Cappis</a> (@chaosinabox) on <time datetime="2018-02-25T23:05:32+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 25, 2018 at 3:05pm PST</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script></center><br />I like the tiny detailing in these sets.&nbsp; As you can see in the Thor vs. Loki set, the go-karts are modeled after their helmets.&nbsp; I went to the dentist back on Thursday, and afterwards I picked up Star Lord vs. Nebula, so of course, their go-karts are modeled after their respective ships in <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i>.&nbsp; And then, some highlights from last year's series, Wolverine's is modeled on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbird_(comics)" target="_blank">Blackbird</a>, Thanos's is modeled on the Infinity Gauntlet, Spider-Man's is based on his infamous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man%27s_powers_and_equipment#Spider-Mobile" target="_blank">Spider-Mobile</a>....&nbsp; They're just cute.&nbsp; Kinda makes me nostalgic for the legendary <a href="https://youtu.be/vMbtwt8Mh9I" target="_blank">Muppet Babies Happy Meal Toys</a> from the 1980s.<br /><br /><br /><hr /><br />So, what am I binging these days?&nbsp; As my morning guy brought up on the air the other day, I've signed up for Netflix, CraveTV, and Amazon Prime Video.&nbsp; "How do you keep track of everything you're binging?" he asks.&nbsp; Well, it's tough.&nbsp; I'll add something to my list, then when i go back to watch it seven months later, it's gone.&nbsp; So, yeah.&nbsp; You can probably blame me for the cancellation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense8" target="_blank"><i>Sense8</i></a>, because that's been high on my list for a while now, but I haven't gotten to it.<br /><br />Well, the main reason I finally signed up for Amazon Prime was for two of their originals.&nbsp; First up was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tick_(2016_TV_series)" target="_blank"><i>The Tick</i></a>.&nbsp; Ben Edlund gives us the third TV iteration of his superhero spoof, and this time out, he gives us a semi-serious take on the material.&nbsp; Don't get me wrong, the Tick is still the Tick, and it still skewers many superhero tropes, but it's got a pretty serious plot going on and gives Arthur some pretty serious issues to deal with.&nbsp; I kind of wish they stuck with what they were hinting at in the pilot, which was making the Tick the Tyler Durden to Arthur's nameless narrator, but it's still good.&nbsp; Part 2 of season 1 just dropped, and I'm about halfway through that second half.<br /><br />After that, the other original that I wanted to check out, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gods_(TV_series)" target="_blank"><i>American Gods</i></a>.&nbsp; I really enjoyed Neil Gaiman's fantasy epic back in the day, and was really looking forward to the TV adaptation, especially since it was brought to the TV screen by Bryan Fuller, who gave me two of my favourite cult classic TV shows, <i>Wonderfalls </i>and <i>Pushing Daisies</i>.&nbsp; When I read the book in the day, and started imagining the intersection of the world of gods and the mortal world, I only expected a slightly heightened version of the real world.&nbsp; Like the really good episodes of <i>The X-Files</i>.&nbsp; But Fuller and his crew, they really pushing things far, and the world of gods really does seem dreamlike.&nbsp; My only complaint.&nbsp; I was wondering how they were going to get an entire series out of the book, even though the book is pretty dense to begin with.&nbsp; But at the end of season 1, I realized that Season 1 was pretty much just the first 6 chapters with a whole bunch of filler.&nbsp; So they'll be able to stretch it out quite a bit.<br /><br />Then I flipped over to CraveTV.&nbsp; They have the first three season of <i>Game of Thrones </i>now, but instead of giving that a shot, I decided to go with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale_(TV_series)" target="_blank"><i>The Handmaid's Tale</i></a>.&nbsp; I read <i>The Handmaid's Tale </i>at around the same time I read <i>American Gods</i>, and it stuck with me.&nbsp; It's interesting comparing the two TV series.&nbsp; Season 1 of <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> pretty much is an adaptation of the book, but they flesh out several supporting characters and add new subplots and expand the universe in such a way that it never feels like filler.&nbsp; And I loved its use of music.<br /><br />Perhaps my most unexpected binge, though, was I discovered that Amazon Prime has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Anderson%27s_New_Captain_Scarlet" target="_blank"><i>New Captain Scarlett</i></a>.&nbsp; I'd been curious about this cartoon when it premiered back in 2005, but it never made it out of the UK.&nbsp; Legendary TV producer Gerry Anderson produced this reboot of one of his classic Supermarionation shows from the 1960s, and it wound up being his final production.<br /><br />For those who've never heard of Captain Scarlett, or the 1960s original, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Scarlet_and_the_Mysterons" target="_blank"><i>Captain Scarlett and the Mysterons</i></a>, this is our story.&nbsp; Earth is under attack by an alien race known as the Mysterons.&nbsp; The Mysterons chief weapon is their complete mastery of matter.&nbsp; Once they destroy something, they can rebuild it and take control of it.&nbsp; Once they kill someone, they can resurrect that person as an agent completely loyal to the Mysteron cause.<br /><br />Leading the fight against the Mysterons:&nbsp; Spectrum, a SHIELD-like organization.&nbsp; They even have a flying commander centre, Cloudbase (Skybase in the reboot), hovering at 40,000 feet above the Earth's surface.&nbsp; They have secret caches of weapons all across the globe.&nbsp; Their top agents have a code name based on a colour.&nbsp; And they even have their own fighter squadron, the Angels, where all the pilots are women.<br /><br />Our hero, Captain Scarlett.&nbsp; Scarlett was one of the first to fall at the hands of the Mysterons.&nbsp; Somehow, his consciousness survived the Mysteron resurrection process.&nbsp; He was able to break free of Mysteron control and rejoin the side of good.&nbsp; But the Mysterons left him with a gift.&nbsp; As a side effect of the resurrection process, Captain Scarlett is now blessed with "retro-metabolism," a Wolverine-style healing factor.&nbsp; Rendering him practically indestructible, Scarlett's suicidal tactics have made him Spectrum's top agent, and a dangerous enemy to the Mysterons.<br /><br />The show itself is really good.&nbsp; The animation..not so much.&nbsp; It was early 2000s CGI, when motion capture was the hot new toy.&nbsp; They used a lot of motion capture on <i>New Captain Scarlett</i>.&nbsp; As such, while the body movement are very lifelike and realistic...the rest of the animation, not so much.&nbsp; Picture <i>The Polar Express </i>on a straight-to-video budget and now you're getting it. <br /><br />But now it's on to the next binge.&nbsp; The new season of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltron:_Legendary_Defender" target="_blank">Voltron</a> </i>just hit Netflix, as did their latest big sci-fi series, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series)" target="_blank"><i>Altered Carbon</i></a>.&nbsp; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Jones_(TV_series)" target="_blank"><i>Jessica Jones: Season 2</i></a> drops this Thursday.<br /><br />And once that`s all done, I might finally get to <i>Sense8</i>.<br /><br /><hr /><br />And we have a new Weird Al song!<br /><br />For those who don't know, <i>Hamilton </i>is the hottest thing to hit Broadway in years.&nbsp; It's a biography of the American founding father Alexander Hamilton, told primarily through hip hop music, and with a racially diverse cast.&nbsp; It has been dominating American pop culture, and made a superstar of its writer and original cast member, Lin-Manuel Miranda. <br /><br />Miranda produced a project called <i>The Hamilton Mix Tape</i> and it's follow-up, "Hamildrops," in which he gets well-known artists to cover songs from the show.&nbsp; Miranda has also become good friends with one of his musical influences as a child, "Weird Al" Yankovic, so it wasn't long before Weird Al participated in this project.<br /><br />And what did Weird Al do?&nbsp; <i>The Hamilton Polka</i>, which is a polka medley of songs from the show.<br /><br /><center><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3v0c6smpHSk" width="560"></iframe></center><br />Even though Weird Al hasn't cut a full album since 2014's <i>Mandatory Fun</i>, he's been pretty active musically over the past year.&nbsp; A couple of months ago, he participated in the project <i>Dr. Demento Covered in Punk</i>.&nbsp; Dr. Demento is the legendary radio announcer whose syndicated show focusing on comedy and novelty songs discovered Weird Al.&nbsp; For <i>Dr. Demento Covered in Punk</i>, Dr. Demento got some of his favourite punk bands to cover novelty songs, and his favourite comedy bands to cover punk songs.&nbsp; Weird Al contributed <a href="https://youtu.be/eJBwotLwOV8" target="_blank">a cover of the Ramone's Beat on the Brat</a>.&nbsp; It's a pretty straight cover until Weird Al comes in with that accordion.&nbsp; <br /><br />And then, Weird Al also did <a href="https://youtu.be/BJgL9pbDLBE" target="_blank">the theme song for this past summer's <i>Captain Underpants </i>movie</a>.&nbsp; I've never ready the original children's books, but apparently, Weird Al is frequently mentioned as an idol of our main characters.&nbsp;<br /><br />So, yeah.&nbsp; I should swing by iTunes and drop the 99 cents for all these songs.&nbsp;<br /><br />And that's about all I wanted to rant about, so I'm now all caught up on my backblog.&nbsp; Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-83681996577596859682018-03-01T00:30:00.000-07:002018-03-01T00:30:07.925-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - SpawnHere we go again, rolling out Fishing in the Discount Bin.&nbsp; I watch&nbsp; movie I own, blog about it, and get on with my day.&nbsp; We're going back to the 1990s with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spawn_(film)" target="_blank"><i>Spawn</i></a>.&nbsp; I watched it and wrote this on August 6, 2017. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Spawnmovieposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="267" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Spawnmovieposter.jpg" width="229" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />I'm starting to see a bit of nostalgia for <i>Spawn </i>cropping up online, what with the recently announced new movie coming, and so I figured I'd pick up the original film from 1997 and give it a watch.&nbsp; Man, I haven't seen it since I saw it in the theatre back in 1997.<br /><br /><i>Spawn </i>has truly become one of those defining touchstones of the 1990s.&nbsp; As I remarked on social media, the defining trends of the 1990s were indie and alternative.&nbsp; Image Comics ruled over indie comics, and Spawn was their king.&nbsp; <i>Spawn </i>was everywhere in the 1990s.&nbsp; The comic was a #1 best-seller, the toys filled toy shelves -- and comic book stores, thus truly creating the secondary market for toys -- and there was a hit show on HBO that ran for three seasons.&nbsp; <br /><br />I remarked once that there are two kinds of superhero films:&nbsp; ones that are made with love and care for the source material, and ones that are slapped together to cash in on a trend.&nbsp; And watching <i>Spawn </i>tonight, it's easily the second type.&nbsp; <i>Spawn </i>was big, so lets get this film out.&nbsp; <br /><br />And watching it again tonight, it is such a cookie-cutter superhero film.&nbsp; You can see the action beats, you can see it follow the formula.&nbsp; In fact, watching it again, it reminded me a lot of another cookie-cutter superhero film from the 1990s that I adore, <i>the Shadow</i>.&nbsp; It kinda follows the same basic plot -- a man whose done heinous acts looking for redemption as a hero -- and even has the same ending...an ominous shot of the hero's eyes and logo, promising more adventures to come.&nbsp; <i>Spawn </i>(the movie) is the dark and gritty reboot of <i>The Shadow </i>(the movie).<br /><br />When I first saw <i>Spawn </i>in the theatre of the summer of 1997, I&nbsp;knew very little about the character.&nbsp; I wasn't reading comics at that point, all I knew was that <i>Spawn </i>was the hot new superhero that was everywhere.&nbsp; So I was shocked at how dark it was.&nbsp; Our hero:&nbsp; Al Simmons, a black-ops commando who travels the globe taking out terrorists.&nbsp; However, he starts worrying about how all this killing is blackening his soul, so he decided to give it up.&nbsp; But, he's talked into doing one last mission, where he's betrayed by his commander Jason Wynn and his partner Jessica Priest, immolated and left for dead.&nbsp; In fact, he does die.&nbsp; He dies and goes to hell, where the devil has a deal for him.&nbsp; The devil -- Malbolgia -- will return Al to Earth to see his wife Wanda again.&nbsp; But, in return, Al must be one of Malbolgia's generals in the apocalyptic war between heaven and hell.&nbsp; Al agrees, and he returns to Earth as a Hellspawn ("Spawn" for short).&nbsp; <br /><br />Turns out, though, that because of that pesky free will that God gave His creation, he has to join Hell's army of his own free will.&nbsp; A demon known as the Violator -- who takes the form of a vulgar clown -- tries to push Spawn to the dark side.&nbsp; On the other side is Cogliostro, a Hellspawn who successfully turned his back on Malbolgia and now fights for the side of good, trying to pull Spawn back to the light and be a hero.&nbsp; <br /><br />Meanwhile, the Clown has been playing Jason Wynn and manipulating him in an attempt to bring about the Apocalypse.&nbsp; Spawn gets all riled up to Wynn, and thus our conflict is born.&nbsp; Will Spawn kill Wynn, and help bring about the Apocalypse, or will he spare Wynn's life and begin his path to redemption?<br /><br />And that's it, man.&nbsp; It's just that simple.&nbsp; But man, does it try hard.&nbsp; It tries so hard.&nbsp; It uses every 1990s film-making technique in the books.&nbsp; Industrial metal fills the soundtrack.&nbsp; Scratchy credit sequences.&nbsp; Religious iconography randomly scattered about.&nbsp; Everything that screamed "look how edgy we are!" in the 1990s is here.&nbsp; It's so 1990s it hurts.&nbsp; <br /><br />And the special effects!&nbsp; People were already screaming in 1997 about how bad the special effects were.&nbsp; Back in 1997, I didn't think they were that bad.&nbsp; But now, seeing it again for the first time in 20 years...it's pretty bad.&nbsp; "A rare off day for ILM!" was the headline back in the day, leading to ILM issuing a rebuttal.&nbsp; Even though ILM is the top-billed special effects house, all they really did were the Violator effects.&nbsp; And that comes across OK.&nbsp; Everything else was done by smaller indie special effects houses...and, yeah.&nbsp; All the money must of when to ILM for the Violator shots.&nbsp; <br /><br />At the end of the day, all I can say is <i>Spawn </i>is a rather run-of-the-mill superhero film.&nbsp; But it tries hard.&nbsp; Man, does it try hard.<br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-40268727420074666202018-02-22T00:30:00.000-07:002018-02-22T00:30:15.347-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - Mystery MenIt's Thursday, so that means it's time to go Fishing in the Discount Bin!&nbsp; I watch a movie, I blog about it, you know the deal.&nbsp; Today, we do the 1999 superhero epic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Men" target="_blank"><i>Mystery Men</i></a>.&nbsp; Actually, I did it back on August 6, 2017, and I'm just copying-and-pasting it into the blog now.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/Mystery_Men_film_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="247" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/Mystery_Men_film_poster.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Sunrise Records is now in open in West Edmonton Mall, so I decided to check it out.&nbsp; And as I perused their 2 for $20 bin, I managed to snag two forgotten superhero movies from the late-1990s, <i>Mystery Men </i>and <i>Spawn</i>.<br /><br />The late 1990s was really weird for the superhero movie.&nbsp; It was declared dead with <i>Batman &amp; Robin </i>in 1997, and came back in a big way with the first <i>X-Men </i>in 2000.&nbsp; So the ones that came in between were kind of forgotten.&nbsp; Some are great (<i>Blade</i>), some are not (<i>Spawn</i>), and some are good but not great <i>(Mystery Men</i>).&nbsp; <br /><br />I'm starting to see a certain amount of nostalgia popping up online for <i>Mystery Men</i>, as it's starting to get mentioned in a lot of the film blogs I read.&nbsp; The puzzle seems to be whatever happened to its director, Kinka Usher?&nbsp; Usher came up through the same school of commercials and music videos that birthed Michael Bay, and with this film, seemed poised to be the next Michael Bay.&nbsp; In fact, he gives his ol' buddy Bay a cameo.&nbsp; But, this was the only film that Usher ever made.&nbsp; After this, he went back to commercials and music videos, and stays there to this very day.&nbsp; <br /><br />Well, for that answer, Hank Azaria (one of the stars) gave an interview a few years ago that pretty much explained it.&nbsp; According to Azaria, <i>Mystery Men </i>was a difficult shoot, and Usher found it very frustrating.&nbsp; Between the visual effects, dealing with egotistical comedians who want to make sure their jokes all make it into the film, and constant arguments with everybody over the tone of the film, Usher was just done.&nbsp; According to Azaria, about halfway through filming, Usher threw up his arms and said, "That's it.&nbsp; I'm going back to commercials after this.&nbsp; You don't have to put up with all this shit in a 60-second spot."&nbsp; <br /><br />And it's too bad, because the film does look freakin' <i>amazing</i>.&nbsp; Usher has a visual flair that cannot be denied.&nbsp; The entire film looks like a blend of Joel Schumacher's <i>Batman </i>films and <i>Brazil</i>.&nbsp; Visually, it's just so good, you guys. <br /><br />Anyway, onto the plot.&nbsp; <i>Mystery Men</i>.&nbsp; They come to us from the legendary underground comic <i>Flaming Carrot Comics</i> as a group of misfit superheroes.&nbsp; They have highly obscure superpowers, or are just delusional to the point where they think they have superpowers.&nbsp; The film opens with an incredibly bizarre function going on at an incredibly bizarre nursing home, when it's raided by criminal gang called the Red Eyes.&nbsp; And our first three Mystery Men bust it up:<br /><br />Mr. Furious, played by Ben Stiller.&nbsp; He gets superstrength when he's consumed with rage, but the joke is, it's Ben Stiller, so he's never "consumed with rage"&nbsp;as much as he's just "mildly annoyed."&nbsp; <br /><br />The Shoveler, played by William H. Macy.&nbsp; He beats people with a shovel.&nbsp; That's about it.&nbsp; But he does it with all the squared-jaw determination of your standard superhero that it's just amazing.&nbsp; <br /><br />And the Blue Raja, played by Azaria.&nbsp; He throws cutlery.&nbsp; Except for knives, because any common thug can throw knives.&nbsp; <br /><br />They're getting their asses handed to them by the Red Eyes when Champion City's chief protector, Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), flies in and saves the day.&nbsp; Captain Amazing is also facing a bit of a crisis.&nbsp; Thanks to his efforts, the crime rate is virtually zero.&nbsp; Since there's no crime to fight, his sponsors are pulling out and the endorsement deals are drying up.&nbsp; Yeah, Captain Amazing has sold out big time.&nbsp; I like that they modeled his superhero film after a NASCAR racing suit, and it's covered with sponsorship patches.&nbsp; It's a clever choice.&nbsp; Anyway, Amazing figures he needs a supervillain to fight again, to raise his stock, so in his secret identity of billionaire philanthropist Lance Hunt, he springs&nbsp; his hold arch-enemy Casanova Frankenstein from the Asylum for the Criminally Insane.&nbsp; <br /><br />Thing is, having spent 20 years in prison to plot his vengeance, Casanova Frankenstein is <i>ready</i>, and promptly captures Captain Amazing in their first battle.&nbsp; And it's now up to our three to rescue Captain Amazing.&nbsp; <br /><br />But they're going to need some help.&nbsp; <br /><br />First, the Shoveler tells us that "he knows a guy," which leads us to the Invisible Boy, played by Kel Mitchel, fresh of the 1990s institution <i>Keanan and Kel</i>.&nbsp; His power is he can turn invisible...but only when no one is looking at him.&nbsp; Again, a great line when our three show up to recruit him.&nbsp; "Hey &nbsp;Dad, I'm going to my room with three strange men I&nbsp;just met."&nbsp; Dad doesn't move.&nbsp; <br /><br />Next, they're joined by the Spleen, played by Paul Reubens.&nbsp; His power:&nbsp; explosive flatulence.&nbsp; Yeah, a walking fart joke.&nbsp; Moving on.<br /><br />They then move on to some open auditions...a scene you may remember if you've ever seen the music video for <i>All-Star </i>by Smash Mouth.&nbsp; Yup, forget <i>Shrek</i>, this was the movie that first used <i>All-Star</i>, and a lot of the audition scene was recycled into music video.&nbsp; In case you ever wondered why Ben Stiller and William H. Macy are in the video for <i>All-Star</i>.&nbsp; <br /><br />Out of that, they get the Bowler, played by Jeannine Garafolo, because it's a Ben Stiller movie in the 1990s.&nbsp; Her power?&nbsp; She throws a bowling ball at people.&nbsp; But it's actually pretty cool, because she can make it bounce and ricochet like Captain America's shield.&nbsp; Turns out, though, she's a legacy hero, as her father was Carmine the Bowler, a legendary hero who was killed by one of Frankenstein's henchman.&nbsp; And to make sure her father is avenged, she had her father's skull preserved inside her bowling ball.&nbsp; Leading to one of my favourite lines.<br /><br />Mr. Furious:&nbsp; So...you preserved your father's head inside the bowling ball?<br />Bowler:&nbsp; No.&nbsp; I had the guy at the pro shop do it.&nbsp; <br /><br />And she frequently has conversations with father through the bowling ball, leading to another of my favourite lines.&nbsp; After she avenges her father's death, and her possessed bowling ball kills the henchman who killed her father, she turns to the ball and says, "Alright, that was the deal.&nbsp; Now I'm going back to graduate school!"&nbsp; When this came out in the summer of 1999, and I saw it in the theatre with a bunch of my buddies who had just finished college and were wondering what to do next, that got a big laugh from all of us.&nbsp; <br /><br />With their team complete, they go confront Casanova Frankenstein, with amounts to stopping his limo on the street and beating the crap out of said limo.&nbsp; Frankenstein is more mildly annoyed than deterred, so he dispatches his goons to take out our heroes.&nbsp; And at the last minute, our heroes are saved by the last member of their team...the Sphinx, who's power is he's just so darn mysterious, and he speaks only in fortune cookie wisdom bites.&nbsp; <br /><br />Under the Sphinx's tutelage, our heroes begin molding themselves into a lean, mean fighting machine.&nbsp; They go into save Captain Amazing, which leads to one of the biggest gags in the film and the perfect third act twist.&nbsp; While attempting to rescue Captain Amazing, Amazing gives them frustrating and confusing instructions as to how to release him...and they wind up triggering Frankenstein's doomsday machine, killing Amazing in the process.&nbsp; <br /><br />Our heroes retreat and regroup and eventually decide that they'll have to stop Frankenstein themselves.&nbsp; After an inspirational speech from the Shoveler, they take a moment to go say good-bye to their loved ones.&nbsp; Definitely, the best is when Mr. Furious goes to say good-bye to a waitress he's been sweet on.&nbsp; The advice he gets from the waitress is the usual, "Stop pretending to be a brooding loner superhero, and just be yourself."&nbsp; Again, this is hilarious, because rather than being inspirational advice to carry him through the rest of the film, it throws Furious into a existential crisis as he tries to figure out who he is...not something you need as your charging into battle.&nbsp; <br /><br />They head off into their final battle with Frankenstein, and all our heroes have a moment to shine.&nbsp; Invisible Boy finally turns invisible to disable an automated security system.&nbsp; When Frankenstein captures the waitress and threatens her, Mr. Furious' finally gets genuinely consumed with rage and his super-strength comes out.&nbsp; And they save the city!<br /><br />But <i>Mystery Men </i>is pretty cool.&nbsp; It looks amazing, there's some genuine laughs, but there's a lot of weirdness for the sake of being weird.&nbsp; It's still pretty good.&nbsp; <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><center> <site-embed id="187"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XFC2o44koIA" width="560"></iframe></site-embed> </center>Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-45490717345613353762018-02-15T00:30:00.000-07:002018-02-15T00:30:15.323-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - Cars 2Rolling along on Fishing in the Discount Bin.&nbsp; Watching movies and blogging about them.&nbsp; It's what I do.&nbsp; This week, finishing what I started last week with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cars_2" target="_blank"><i>Cars 2</i></a>.&nbsp; This is in my notes at July 29, 2017.<br /><i> </i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/Cars_2_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="259" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/Cars_2_Poster.jpg" /></a></div><i> </i><br /><br /><i></i><br /><a name='more'></a><i>&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Cars 2&nbsp;</i>was the first Pixar film where I looked at all the trailers and TV spots and said, "Pass."&nbsp; If <i>Cars </i>was the first one that felt phoned in, <i>Cars 2</i> was the first one that felt like a cash grab.&nbsp; Still bought it on Blu-Ray, though, because I have every other Pixar film and couldn't have a gap in my collection.&nbsp; <br /><br />A lot of people were stunned when it was announced that <i>Cars </i>was getting a sequel, but when you look at the business side of show business, <i>Cars </i>is Pixar's biggest hit.&nbsp; Out of every Pixar franchise, <i>Cars </i>is the one that's sold the most merchandise.&nbsp; As one critic pointed out, every little boy goes through a phase where he's all about&nbsp;Hot Wheels cars, and <i>Cars </i>slides into that demographic quite nicely.&nbsp; <br /><br />So, what to do for a <i>Cars </i>sequel?&nbsp; Well, between <i>Cars </i>and <i>Cars 2</i>, Pixar kept the franchise alive with a series of short films called <i>Cars Toons:&nbsp; Mater's Tall Tales</i>, that aired on the Disney Channel.&nbsp; In them, Mater the Tow Truck (as played by Larry the Cable Guy), spins a tall tale about some grand adventure he's been on, and at the climax he turns to Lightening McQueen and says, "You were there, too," and suddenly, the whole thing becomes real, and McQueen is dragged along for the ride.&nbsp; And kids loved them.&nbsp; <br /><br />So, rather than more racing action, because it's a film about race cars, we got a feature length <i>Mater's Tall Tales</i>, with this time, Mater telling the tale of how he was a spy.&nbsp; <br /><br />If you ever wanted an animated Larry the Cable Guy film, here we are.&nbsp; <br /><br />In a way, I see <i>Cars 2</i> as being the legacy of Circle 7 Animation.&nbsp; See, back in 2006, when <i>Cars </i>hit theatres, Pixar and Disney were at loggerheads.&nbsp; Pixar was still a separate company at that time, and their contract to produce animated films for Disney was nearing expiration.&nbsp; Contract talks had broken down, and Pixar was starting to look for a new home.&nbsp; As a "screw you" to Pixar, and since their original deal gave Disney the sequel rights to the films Pixar produced for them, Disney announced the formation of Circle 7 Animation, a new animation studio dedicated to pumping out Pixar sequels.&nbsp; <br /><br />Well, the whole dispute ended with Disney remembering they have more money than God and just buying Pixar.&nbsp; As part of the deal, Pixar boss John Lasseter became the boss of Disney animation, and one of the first things he did was shut down Circle 7.&nbsp; But something funny happened.&nbsp; As Lasseter looked over what Circle 7 was working on, he was surprised that they were making a genuine effort to make these sequels worthy of the original.&nbsp; Thus, a lot of Circle 7's projects -- <i>Toy Story 3, Monsters Inc 2, Finding Nemo 2 </i>and <i>Cars 2</i> -- have come to pass. <br /><br />I have no doubt, though, that if Pixar and Disney weren't able to hash things out, the majority of Circle 7's output would have been as cash-grabby as <i>Cars 2</i>.&nbsp; <br /><br />Our plot, Lightening McQueen is done for the season, and Mater is looking forward to a&nbsp; fun-filled off-season of hanging out with his best buddy McQueen.&nbsp; Meanwhile, oil magnate Miles Axelrod has developed an all-new organic alternative fuel called Alinol.&nbsp; To promote Alinol, he has created a race called the World Grand Prix:&nbsp; three races in three cities around the world, using the best racers from every field of racing.&nbsp; McQueen's originally reluctant to participate -- he, too, is looking forward to a fun-filled off-season with his best buddy -- but when the great Italian racer, an F1 named Francesco Bernouli calls McQueen a coward on TV&nbsp;for not participating, and Mater calls in to defend McQueen's honour, McQueen picks up the gauntlet that's been thrown down, and invites Mater along on this global journey.&nbsp; <br /><br />First stop, and the first race:&nbsp; Tokyo.&nbsp; Turns out, there's doin's a transpirin', and there's a shadowy forces out to sabotage the race.&nbsp; Two British secret agents -- Finn McMissel and Holly Shiftwell -- and investigating, and thanks to one of those mix-ups that only happens in movies, mistake Mater for their American contact who's also investigating.&nbsp; Of course, Mater in Tokyo kind of embarrasses McQuenn -- because, it's Larry the Cable Guy doing a bunch of lame cultural misunderstanding gags with the Japanese -- and then when he starts telling wild tales of meeting spies, McQueen and Mater have a big fight, and Mater decides to go home to Radiator Springs.&nbsp; <br /><br />But, at the airport, Mater is whisked away by McMissel and Shiftwell, and thus we have Malarry the Cable Truck stumbling his way through spy adventures and cultural misunderstandings in other lands, all while trying to save his buddy McQueen from the shadows.&nbsp; <br /><br />As I said before, in <i>Cars</i>, Mater is OK.&nbsp; He's amazing in <i>Cars 3</i>, where he's relegated to a glorified cameo.&nbsp; But to try and build an entire feature film around him?&nbsp; No.&nbsp; Comedic sidekicks rarely make great lead characters.&nbsp; Maybe if they made Mater the sidekick to McMissel, because McMissel finds Mater's savant like knowledge of engines to be an asset in disclosing the mastermind's identity, it would have worked.&nbsp; But no.&nbsp; Instead, Mater is our hero, being pushed into action by McMissel.&nbsp; <br /><br />It all kind of reminds me of that gag from a <i>Simpsons </i>episode.&nbsp; It's the one where Homer gets banned from Moe's, so Homer goes looking for a new bar to hang out in.&nbsp; Eventually, he dons an old pilot's uniform and starts hanging out in the pilots' lounge at the airport.&nbsp; One day, an airline boss comes in, saying they need a pilot.&nbsp; The boss grabs Homer, and Homer immediately comes clean, saying he's not a pilot, just dressed like one to drink in the lounge.&nbsp; The boss chuckles and says, "You flyboys crack me up."&nbsp; CUT TO, the boss dragging Homer into the cockpit of a plane, Homer once again protests, "I KEEP TELLING YOU!&nbsp; I'M NOT A PILOT!"&nbsp; And the boss responds with, "AND I KEEP TELLING <b>YOU</b>, YOU FLYBOYS CRACK ME UP!"&nbsp; And Homer promptly drives the airplane off the runway and into a pond.&nbsp; <br /><br />It's like they tried to make an entire movie out of that bit.&nbsp; In fact, they rip off the bit several times, with Mater flat-out saying that he's not a spy, just a small town tow truck.&nbsp; And what do McMissel and Shiftwell do?&nbsp; They applaud Mater for his commitment to his cover story.&nbsp; That makes them the dumbest spies in movie history.&nbsp; <br /><br />There is some good, though.&nbsp; I mean, like the other <i>Cars&nbsp;</i>films, they animation is gorgeous.&nbsp; About as photo-realistic as you can get, as Pixar renders Tokyo, the Italian countryside (race #2 takes place in Monte Carlo) and London (where race #3 takes place).&nbsp; A great voice case, too, to voice our new characters.&nbsp; Michael Caine is great as McMissel, Emily Mortimer is adorable as Shiftwell, and Stanley Tucci chews the scenery as Bernouli.&nbsp; <br /><br />Speaking of a great voice cast and wasted opportunities, how about Bruce Campbell as the American spy that Mater is mistaken for?&nbsp; He only gets about 10 lines before the villains kill him off.&nbsp; <br /><br />The film does have on redeeming characteristic.&nbsp; I think Michael Giacchino is one of the best film composers working today, and Giacchino does an <i>amazing </i>score.&nbsp; Giacchino manages to channel so many other composers and diverse musical styles for this film.&nbsp; For the spy action, he does this great <i>James Bond Theme</i> sound-a-like.&nbsp; For the opening scenes of Mater and McQueen screwing around in Radiator Springs, he channels some classic, 1960s Disney.&nbsp; But he does his original stuff, too.&nbsp; For the races, he comes up with this great stuff that sounds like a blend of what Randy Newman did in the first film and Giacchino's <i>Speed Racer </i>score.&nbsp; <br /><br />In fact, Giacchino is responsible for the one moment...the one genuine laugh...that this film gives me.&nbsp; What I love about every single Pixar film is each and every one is able to throw at lease one curve ball...do at least one thing so out of left field that I just go, "Whoa."&nbsp; <br /><br />As already mentioned, Giacchion does a great James Bond-esque main theme for the film.&nbsp; <br /><br /><center> <site-embed id="185"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sKIuil64K4Q" width="560"></iframe></site-embed></center><br />At the film's climax, when Mater has his <i>House </i>moment and is able to use his knowledge of car parts to deduce the villain's identity, and Mater goes racing off to stop the villain, we hear...<br /><br />...that theme...<br /><br />...played...<br /><br />...on a banjo.&nbsp; <br /><br />I'm not talking like a bluegrass cover or anything like that.&nbsp; We hear that exact theme, that arrangement and everything, with the lead guitar...replaced...with a banjo.&nbsp; They mention on the running commentary that Giacchino had to track down some obscure electric banjo to make it work. <br /><br />And it's <i>fucking </i>brilliant. &nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />And I was <i>fucking </i>pissed because I bought the soundtrack album just for the cut, and it wasn't on the soundtrack album!&nbsp; The closest is this one.&nbsp; Maybe they couldn't put the banjo version on for reasons.&nbsp; This is the closest cut on the soundtrack album. That first 30 seconds...try to imagine it with a banjo instead of a guitar.<br /><br /><center> <site-embed id="186"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L7q6DppOmHs" width="560"></iframe> </site-embed></center><br /><br />So there ya go.&nbsp; <i>Cars 2</i>.&nbsp; Come because your kids made you, stay for the banjo.Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-23665289840406343292018-02-10T00:30:00.000-07:002018-02-10T00:30:47.017-07:00Superbowl Trailers -- Jurassic World and Mission: ImpossibleMy week off is winding down, so let's do something else I've been putting off...blogging about some of the new trailers released during the Super Bowl, almost a week ago.<br /><br />I've been lamenting recently that I don't blog about trailers as much as I used to.&nbsp; It's so much easier to throw up on a link on my social media pages rather than sit down and try to come up with an insightful critique.&nbsp; One complaint I did get about those blog posts in the past was I spent too much time talking about the film itself rather than offering my opinions.&nbsp; So I figure I won't waste the energy blogging about a trailer unless I have a really strong opinion about it.<br /><br />Case in point:&nbsp; <i>Jurassic World:&nbsp; Fallen Kingdom</i>.&nbsp; I wanted to blog about <a href="https://youtu.be/vn9mMeWcgoM" target="_blank">the first trailer when it came out in December</a>, but never got around to it.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because it looked so much like all the <i>Jurassic Park </i>we've seen before.&nbsp; "Oh noes!&nbsp; We're trapped on an island with dinosaurs!&nbsp; How will we escape?"&nbsp; Looks like the big twist this time is now they're trying to escape a volcano, too.&nbsp; <sarcasm>&nbsp; Yay.&nbsp; </sarcasm>&nbsp; When are they finally going to pull the trigger and give us the "dinosaurs loose on the mainland" film they've been threatening ever since Spielberg tacked on the "T-Rex loose in San Diego" third act to <i>The Lost World</i>?<br /><br />Which is why I'm still one of the few defenders of <i>Jurassic World</i>.&nbsp; Say what you will, but finally having a fully operational theme park full of people when the poop hits the fan...that was one of the most simple and obvious twists to the premise you could do.&nbsp; It finally gave us something new.<br /><br />And which is why the Super Bowl spot for <i>Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom </i>finally piqued my interest.<br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NooW_RbfdWI" width="560"></iframe></center><br />That opening scene?&nbsp; Of some freaky mutant dino in a <i>kid's bedroom</i>?&nbsp; That's got my attention.&nbsp; The unveiling scene at the end, with "Welcome to the future?"&nbsp; I want to know what's being unveiled.&nbsp; Probably the freaky mutant dino.&nbsp; My interest has gone from "meh" to "mild."<br /><br /><i>Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom </i>hits theatres June 22.<br /><br /><hr /><br />Back in college, I had this one teacher who sat me down one day I told me that I was a strong 7.&nbsp; See, my college, Augustana, graded you on a 9 point scale.&nbsp; 0 is a total failure, 9 is top of the class.&nbsp; After seeing this teacher for help, he got off on a tangent and started sharing his observations of me.&nbsp; He said, "I see you putting in the work, Mark.&nbsp; You work harder than pretty much anyone in class.&nbsp; You put in so much effort, but your net results are only worthy of a 7.&nbsp; I mean, I <i>want </i>to give you an 8 or 9, because of all the work you do, but these results are only worth a 7.&nbsp; But it's a strong 7."<br /><br />That's my impression of the <i>Mission: Impossible </i>franchise.&nbsp; It's a strong 7.&nbsp; I see Tom Cruise, putting in the work, going through his Jackie Chan-esque "watch me do all these dangerous stunts by myself" midlife crisis.&nbsp; I've always loved the superspy genre, so I really, really, <b>really<i> </i></b>want to love the <i>Mission: Impossible </i>franchise.&nbsp; But, like my teacher looked at me that day, I look at Tom Cruise with a mild disappointment that his best efforts didn't earn more than a 7.&nbsp; <br /><br />It's also funny in that we're starting to get this backlash against Tom Cruise doing these kinds of films.&nbsp; When the last one, <i>Rogue Nation</i>, came out, someone pointed out that Cruise is now as old as Jon Voight was when Voight played Cruise's boss in the first <i>Mission: Impossible</i>.&nbsp; And back then, Voight's character was portrayed as on the cusp of retirement.&nbsp; Last year, in <i>The Mummy</i>, there was much eye-rolling when Russel Crowe's Dr. Jekyl described Tom Cruise as a "young man," when Cruise is actually two years older than Crowe.&nbsp; So, yeah.&nbsp; There's this push that Cruise should, quite literally, start acting his age.<br /><br />Anyway, we got our first trailer for the next in the franchise, <i>Mission: Impossible -- Fallout</i>.<br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wb49-oV0F78" width="560"></iframe></center><br />So, yeah.&nbsp; It's looking to be more of the same.&nbsp; I do like the line about how maybe Cruise's character of Ethan Hunt may be getting annoyed at his situations.&nbsp; The formula in all these films is that a mission goes sideways, Hunt is framed, and he has to go rogue to clear his name and/or uncover the conspiracy.&nbsp; After five films, I'm sure he'd start going, "You <i>still </i>don't believe me when I say I was framed?"&nbsp;<br /><br />I saw <i>Rogue Nation </i>in the theatre because I had a free weekend and just felt going out and doing something.&nbsp; I'll probably be in the same boat with <i>Fallout</i> when it comes out July 27.&nbsp; Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-64706993099298424022018-02-09T00:30:00.000-07:002018-02-09T00:30:03.717-07:00Half OffWell, it's that time of year again.&nbsp; Every year, around January or so, I get an e-mail from the HR department informing me that I still have about a week's worth of unused vacation time from the previous year, and they'd really like me to get it off the books.&nbsp; So, I usually wind up taking a week off in February to use up said vacation time.&nbsp; I'm nearing the end of that week right now, and it's been a pretty quiet week of just pretty much screwing around around the house.&nbsp; Although, I decided to spend at least one day heading into Edmonton to screw around in a different location.<br /><br />It was strange heading into Edmonton this late after Christmas.&nbsp; Usually, I'm heading into the city the first or second weekend in January with a bunch of Christmas gift cards burning a hole in my pocket.&nbsp; But this year, I only got one gift card for Christmas.&nbsp; It's going to make 2018 somewhat expensive.&nbsp; In the final weeks of 2017, I was boasting on Twitter how I made it through the year without paying for a single movie, thanks to all the Cineplex gift cards I got for Christmas in 2016.&nbsp; Looking at some of the movies coming up in 2018, it's going to get expensive pretty quick.<br /><br />I was contemplating going to see a movie, but there's not much out right now that caught my eye.&nbsp; With the Oscars right around the corner, and <i><a href="https://youtu.be/XFYWazblaUA" target="_blank">The Shape of Water</a> </i>getting a lot of Oscar love, I was thinking about maybe seeing <i>The Shape of Water</i>.&nbsp; But again. with a lack of gift cards and my eyes on a budget right now, I figured that maybe I should save my money for <i><a href="https://youtu.be/xjDjIWPwcPU" target="_blank">Black Panther</a> </i>when it comes out next week.<br /><br />On a whim, I decided to stop in at Toys R Us.&nbsp; With action figure collecting still being one of my top hobbies, I find I don't stop in at Toys R Us that much anymore.&nbsp; Maybe it has to do with living out in the countryside, but I figure that whenever I get into Toys R Us and have a chance to go through the racks, pretty much everything is picked-over, and I have trouble finding what I want.&nbsp; Especially with <i>Star Wars</i>.&nbsp; <i>Last Jedi </i>merch is already pretty much sold out, so the shelves are full of old <i>Rogue One </i>stuff at 75% off.<br /><br />I did find myself lingering in the Lego aisle for an extended amount of time, and I may have gazed longingly at some of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Trains" target="_blank">Lego Trains</a> stuff.&nbsp; Lego Trains has always occupied this funny little overlap between model railway enthusiasts and Lego fans, and has amassed a sizable cult following.<br /><br />About 10 years ago or so, my brother bought his motorcycle and my dad bought his ATV, so the joke in the family was, "Gee, what's Mark going to buy when he has his mid-life crisis?"&nbsp; (Although, according to some of the folks I went to NAIT with, going back to school to pursue a career in broadcasting at the ripe-old age of 25 was what I did for my midlife crisis, but I digress.)&nbsp; Truth is, it'll probably be a model railway.&nbsp; I like trains, but I've never had a train set.&nbsp; And Lego Trains just have a certain quirky appeal.&nbsp; But with the starter sets at Toys R Us going for $225, it'll be a costly hobby to get into.<br /><br />I kept browsing through the Lego aisle in awe.&nbsp; As I've lamented many times before, when I was a kid, there were just Lego themes:&nbsp; Town, Castle, and Space.&nbsp; Now, there's just so many licensed products, it blows my mind.&nbsp; And that's just the Lego aisle.&nbsp; Imagine how my mind would be blown at the Lego Store.&nbsp; I only went to Edmonton's Lego Store just once.&nbsp; About five years ago, I was again taking a week off to burn off some vacation time, so I made the trek to the southside and <a href="https://www.southgatecentre.com/" target="_blank">Southgate Mall</a> to check out the just-opened Lego Store.&nbsp; There was a lot of Lego.<br /><br />Taking a close look at the superhero themes, I started examining the Marvel Heroes Mighty Micros.&nbsp; These are adorable little Lego sets.&nbsp; You get a Marvel hero and villain in each pack, and they have a little go-kart theme to that character to you can have little go-kart races with them.&nbsp; At a very affordable $10 each, I wound up collecting all of them last year.&nbsp; In 2017, they gifted us with Spider-Man vs. the Scorpion, Iron Man vs. Thanos, and Wolverine vs. Magneto.&nbsp; Well, I discovered they have some new ones out for 2018:&nbsp; Thor vs. Loki, Star-Lord vs. Nebula, and Scarlet Spider vs. Sandman.&nbsp; Wasn't sure if I wanted to start collecting the new ones, or just move along, so I moved along.&nbsp; Maybe next week, when I'm back for <i>Black Panther.</i><br /><br />I arrived at my usual destination of West Edmonton Mall, and began exploring.&nbsp; I always forget how wonderfully quiet the mall is on a weekday afternoon.&nbsp; Sometimes, it's nice to go without an agenda or a plan.&nbsp; Just wander around, see what you can see, and just start to slowly feel bad because it begins to be a constant reminder of how broke you currently are. <br /><i> </i><br />I did have to make one stop, though.&nbsp; At work, I'd been lamenting how we've got no 2018 calendars up yet, making it tough to keep track of things and plan ahead.&nbsp; Luckily, the calendar pop-up stores that the mall always gets for Christmas hadn't shut down yet.&nbsp; And now, their entire stock is half-off.&nbsp; So I got <i>Great Canadian Trains </i>for the office, and <i>Classic Travel Posters </i>for home.<br /><br />Also took a moment to look at the sign heralding the arrival of the <a href="http://www.bubbagump.com/" target="_blank">Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.</a>&nbsp; The original news report said it'd be opening March 1, but now they're saying it'll probably be opening in the late spring or early summer.&nbsp; I am getting surprisingly excited for the arrival of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.&nbsp; The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. opened up in the mid-1990s.&nbsp; The entire restaurant is themed around the movie <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump" target="_blank"><i>Forrest Gump</i></a>, and is named for Gump's shrimp boat business in the film.&nbsp; As I'm sure you've figured out, the menu is about 90% shrimp dishes. West Edmonton Mall is going to be their first ever Canadian location, and they're hoping to make it their Canadian flagship location. <br /><br />I'm getting excited for several reasons.&nbsp; First, I love shrimp.&nbsp; Second, I love kitsch like this.&nbsp; Lastly, pure nostalgia, as it's reminding me of the boom of the chain restaurants like this.&nbsp; The boom lasted for most of the 1990s, and during that time, in West Edmonton Mall, you could find a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Rock_Cafe" target="_blank">Hard Rock Cafe</a> and a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Hollywood" target="_blank">Planet Hollywood</a> and a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Rockets" target="_blank">Johnny Rockets</a> and a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuddruckers" target="_blank">Fuddrucker's</a>....&nbsp; And like all those chains, I'll eat at them once and then figure that's enough.&nbsp; <br /><br />On my way out of town, I decided to make one last stop at Canadian Tire.&nbsp; As I blogged when I first learned about it back in November, "Canadian Tire exclusive" is not a phrase that pops up in <i>Star Wars </i>action figure collecting circles.&nbsp; But, that phrase did pop up back in November when <i>The Last Jedi </i>figures started showing up.&nbsp; I figured that, since Canadian Tire only really has a toy section when Christmas rolls around, now would be the prefect time to get it, as it would be heavily discounted.&nbsp; And I was right!&nbsp; 50% off.&nbsp; So I snatched it up.&nbsp; Sadly, I forgot my Canadian Tire money at home or else it would have been cheaper.<br /><br /><br /><center><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Be4NqK_nCno/" data-instgrm-version="8" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Be4NqK_nCno/" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Mark Cappis (@chaosinabox)</a> on <time datetime="2018-02-07T02:14:54+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 6, 2018 at 6:14pm PST</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script></center><br />The Canadian Tire exclusive 3-pack comes to us from <i>Return of the Jedi</i>, featuring Luke Skywalker in his black Jedi outfit, Emperor Palpatine, and the Emperor's Royal Guard.&nbsp; It's almost a throwback to the Cinema Scenes 3-Packs of yore.&nbsp; When this modern era of <i>Star Wars </i>figures began in the late 1990s, they did a thing called Cinema Scenes.&nbsp; It was a three pack of figures, all done up to look just as they did in a specific scene from the original trilogy.<br /><br />With some shiny new <i>Star Wars </i>toys, it was time to head for home.&nbsp; I do like days like this, but they always make me feel sad.&nbsp; I would certainly love to be able to take better vacations than just hanging around the house and making daytrips like this, but financially, it's just not in the cards.&nbsp; But until that day, we do the best we can.&nbsp; Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-59685311372899182412018-02-08T00:30:00.000-07:002018-02-08T00:30:06.515-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - CarsHere we go again with Fishing in the Discount Bin...watching the movies, and blogging about them.&nbsp; This week, I find myself re-watching Disney/Pixar's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cars_(film)" target="_blank"><i>Cars</i></a>.&nbsp; That is, I originally watched it and wrote this on July 23, 2017.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/Cars_2006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="259" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/Cars_2006.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />I'm a total Pixar fanboy, and the trailers for <i>Cars 3</i> were enough to get me out to the theatre and watch it.&nbsp; Upon coming home, I figured I'd toss <i>Cars </i>in the ol' Blu-Ray player and re-watch the film that launched Pixar's biggest franchise...in terms of merchandise sales.&nbsp; <br /><br />Here's the thing.&nbsp; As maligned as <i>Cars </i>is for being the lesser of Pixar's franchises, the first <i>Cars </i>is not a bad movie.&nbsp; But it's not a great movie.&nbsp; And, at that point in time, we had come to expect great movies from Pixar.&nbsp; And <i>Cars</i> was just...good.&nbsp; I remember trying to put it together as I came out of the theatre after <i>Cars&nbsp;</i>in 2006.&nbsp; Every Pixar film up to that point felt like they were always pushing things a little bit further.&nbsp; A little bit more in terms of storytelling, emotion, animation, everything.&nbsp; <i>Monsters Inc</i> was a little better than <i>Toy Story 2</i>, <i>Finding Nemo </i>was a little better than <i>Monsters Inc</i>, and then when <i>Cars </i>came along, it was like Pixar said, "OK, we got this.&nbsp; We've cracked the code."&nbsp; <i>Cars </i>felt like the first Pixar film where Pixar was content to rest on their laurels.&nbsp; <br /><br />So, yeah.&nbsp; It's good, but not great.&nbsp; <br /><br />Our hero, Lightening McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson.&nbsp; McQueen is a rookie sensation in the racing world, and is poised to become the first-ever to win the prestigious Piston Cup in his rookie year.&nbsp; However, the championship race ends in an unprecedented 3-way tie:&nbsp; McQueen, legendary racer Strip "The King" Weathers (voiced by real legendary racer Richard Petty), who's already announced his retirement after this season, and Chick Hicks (voiced by Michael Keaton), the King's long-time rival and perpetual second-place finisher.&nbsp; The officials declare that a special tiebreaker race will be held in one week's time, across the country in LA.&nbsp; <br /><br />Now, McQueen, he's a cocky SOB.&nbsp; He's dedication to the sport and being the best has made him arrogant, driving away pretty much any friend he used to have.&nbsp; He burns through crew members with a speed that rivals what he does on the track.&nbsp; He's embarrassed by his sponsor, Rust-Eze Medicated Bumper Ointment (ha ha, it's hemorrhoid cream in this world), and having to do his contractually-obligated meet-and-greets with rusty old cars.&nbsp; He's hoping that, between the retirement of the King and a Piston Cup win, he can sign with the King's prestigious sponsor Dinoco Oil.&nbsp; McQueen orders his transport, Mack the Truck, to drive 24/7 to get him to LA first, so he can spend an extra week wining and dining the Dinoco execs.&nbsp; A sleepy Mack accidentally dumps off McQueen in the middle of nowhere.&nbsp; A panicked McQueen wakes up, and winds up literally tearing up main street of the small town of Radiator Springs.&nbsp; <br /><br />The small town judge and doctor, Doc Hudson, is eager to clear McQueen of the charges and get him the hell out of town.&nbsp; But, the small town lawyer, Sally, implores Doc Hudson to sentence McQueen to community service and fix up main street, because hey, main street needed it anyways.&nbsp; Thanks to an inspirational speech Sally gives the residents, Doc Hudson sides with Sally, and McQueen is ordered to tow the town's paving machine down main street until main street is fixed. <br /><br />And thus begins our main plot thrust.&nbsp; Stuck in this small town, patching up the road, McQueen comes to befriend the citizens of Radiator Springs, slow down, appreciate life, and stop being so selfish. <br /><br />And this is where the whole "resting on its laurels" comes into play,&nbsp; The whole thing does seem rather Dreamworks-like, in the way the town of Radiator Springs is populated with celebrities doing their schtick.&nbsp; George Carlin is a little bit wasted as Fillmore, a VW&nbsp;bus hippie.&nbsp; Cheech Marin fares a little bit better as Ramon, a low-rider and body art specialist, who can give you a new paint job for any occasion.&nbsp; The main scene-stealer is Tony Shaloub as Luigi, the Italian tire shop owner, and his sidekick Guido, who dream of selling tires to a Ferrari someday.&nbsp; <br /><br />But the most infamous one is Mater the Tow Truck, voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, pretty much just doing his stand-up schtick...you know, the simple, redneck stereotype.&nbsp; And, as we learn in <i>Cars 2</i>, Mater is best in small doses.&nbsp; Here, he's tolerable as he declares McQueen his new best friend and starts worming his way into McQueen's heart.&nbsp; In fact, Mater perfectly represents a web comic I saw going around about how to make friends as an adult:&nbsp; just find someone you like, and hang around them until they finally accept you.&nbsp; <br /><br />The one that deserves to be remembered, though, is Doc Hudson, voiced by Paul Newman, in what wound up being his final film role.&nbsp; Doc Hudson is a lovable old grump who takes an instant dislike to McQueen, and McQueen eventually finds out why.&nbsp; Turns out Doc Hudson is the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, a legendary racer in the 1950s.&nbsp; After a career-ending accident, Doc Hudson felt like the racing world turned his back on him, so he turned his back on racing and pretty much hid in this small town.&nbsp; Their relationship turns out to be mutually beneficial, as Doc teaches McQueen the old sports adage of winning and losing not mattering, and McQueen helps Doc get his racing mojo back.&nbsp; <br /><br />And the other standout is Sally, our lawyer, voiced by Pixar regular Bonnie Hunt.&nbsp; I'd almost like to see a prequel about her story.&nbsp; When McQueen starts asking her how she got stuck in Radiator Springs, she tells her story about how she was a big city lawyer in LA, but she found her work unfulfilling.&nbsp; So, one day, she just drove away from it.&nbsp; She drove and drove and drove until she couldn't drive anymore, and found herself in Radiator Springs -- both literally and figuratively.&nbsp; She fell in love with the town and its residents and decided to settle down there, where she runs the motel and optimistically tries to return the town to its former glory.<br /><br />Looking through the DVD&nbsp;bonus materials, can't help but wonder if director John Lasseter based Sally on himself a little bit.&nbsp; The DVD&nbsp;bonus materials elaborate that the original inception for <i>Cars </i>was to be about a lone electric car in a world of gas-guzzlers.&nbsp; But, in the year 2000, fearing that he was starting to become to obsessed with work, Lasseter took an extended vacation.&nbsp; Being a bit of a car enthusiast, he loaded up his family in an RV&nbsp;and they went on a road trip down the historic Route 66.&nbsp; After that, the entire movie changed to be about a town along Route 66, and how it died once the Interstate was built.&nbsp; Based on the featurette, and the footage Pixar shot along Route 66 and the Route 66 historians they talked to, I would still love to see the Pixar-produced Route 66 documentary compiled from their footage and interviews.&nbsp; <br /><br />And here we go back to what I&nbsp;mentioned before about resting on their laurels.&nbsp; We're treated to a montage set to a James Taylor song showcasing Radiator Springs in its heyday, and how it withered and died after the Interstate came through.&nbsp; No doubt Lasseter was hoping for an emotional gut punch, like Jessie's song in <i>Toy Story 2</i>, or the opening sequence of <i>Up</i>, but the whole thing just kind of rings hollow.&nbsp; <br /><br />Anyway, the entire racing world is gobsmacked by the mysterious disappearance of Lightening McQueen.&nbsp; As McQueen's presence is stirring up too many unpleasant memories of his past, Doc Hudson eventually tips off the media as to where McQueen is, and the racing world literally comes to Radiator Springs and drags McQueen away.&nbsp; It's the day of the big race, and McQueen can't get his head in the game as he's growing homesick for Radiator Springs.&nbsp; But...surprise!&nbsp; As McQueen has successfully softened Doc Hudson's heart, Doc Hudson shows up, wearing his old Fabulous Hudson Hornet colours, takes the role of McQueen's new crew chief, and the denizens of Radiator Springs form McQueen's new pit crew.&nbsp; <br /><br />With Doc's coaching, McQueen's victory seems assured.&nbsp; But, not wanting to lose to the King one last time, Chick Hicks pulls off a dirty move, and the King is in a&nbsp; horrible wreck.&nbsp; Upon seeing this, and remembering what happened to Doc all those years ago, McQueen stops mere feet from the finish line, allowing Chick Hicks to win.&nbsp; McQueen turns around, and helps the King across the finish line, explaining that it's only fitting the King get to finish&nbsp; his final race.&nbsp; For this display of sportsmanship -- and to borrow the line from <i>Rocky</i> -- Chick Hicks won the race, but McQueen won the day.&nbsp; As Radiator Springs taught him loyalty, McQueen turns down the Dinoco sponsorship, instead sticking with Rust-Eze, as they gave him his big break.&nbsp; And to help revitalize Radiator Springs, McQueen announces that he's establishing his new racing HQ in Radiator Springs.&nbsp; &nbsp;Happy endings all around!<br /><br />Like I said, it's good but not great.&nbsp; The plot is formulaic.&nbsp; But the animation is mind-blowing.&nbsp; Pixar gets damn near photo-realistic as they create the vast vista and beautiful roadside scenery.&nbsp; The soundtrack is pretty good.&nbsp; Randy Newman does a pretty solid score, and most of the pop songs on the soundtrack are pretty good.&nbsp; Hell, working at a country music station in Canada, we still give that Rascal Flatts cover of <i>Life is a Highway</i> a lot of airplay.&nbsp; <br /><br />And there we have <i>Cars</i>.&nbsp; While it's not Pixar's best, it's not a bad little film, all in all.<br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-30128307473226512692018-02-05T09:25:00.002-07:002018-02-05T09:25:44.938-07:00Solo: A Star Wars Story TrailerWell, it's finally here!&nbsp; Our first look at the second of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solo:_A_Star_Wars_Story" target="_blank"><i>Star Wars Stories</i>, <i>Solo</i></a>, telling us the secret origin of Han Solo.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dA-PsqZuCSE/Wnh3nUtGVXI/AAAAAAAACRA/x1mJ3dYh0pgLhpx_rk0A1d-Izz1_wPg6ACLcBGAs/s1600/Solo_CharacterTeaser_1-Sht_Online_Solo_1-Sht_v2_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Solo: A Star Wars Story Teaser Poster" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1081" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dA-PsqZuCSE/Wnh3nUtGVXI/AAAAAAAACRA/x1mJ3dYh0pgLhpx_rk0A1d-Izz1_wPg6ACLcBGAs/s400/Solo_CharacterTeaser_1-Sht_Online_Solo_1-Sht_v2_lg.jpg" title="Solo: A Star Wars Story Teaser Poster" width="270" /></a></div><br />It was first announced back in the summer of 2015.&nbsp; Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote <i>The Empire Strikes Back </i>and <i>Return of the Jedi</i>, was writing the script along with his son Joe.&nbsp; And to direct it, they hired Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, directors of such hit comedies as <i>21 Jump Street </i>and <i>The Lego Movie</i>.&nbsp; They started filming almost a year ago under the code name <i>Red Cup</i>.&nbsp; <a href="https://youtu.be/BKZqGJONH68" target="_blank">Get it?</a><br /><br />But then the poop hit the fan in June of 2017.&nbsp; With filming about 75% done, Lord and Miller were fired, under the age old reason of "creative differences."&nbsp; We've heard some of the stories as to what those creative differences were.&nbsp; It sounds like the main one had to do with tone.&nbsp; Given their comedic backgrounds, Lord and Miller were hired to bring a comedic touch to the film.&nbsp; But, Lord and Miller were allegedly directing it as an outright comedy.&nbsp; As they did in their comedies, Lord and Miller were encouraging a lot of improv from their actors, which led to a very grumpy Kasdan.&nbsp; Kasdan was soon hovering over them on the set, leading to a very grumpy Lord and Miller.&nbsp; So many grumpy people, someone had to go eventually.&nbsp; Fare thee well, Lord and Miller.<br /><br />Given that situation, it was heavily rumoured that Kasdan would take over as director, but the various Hollywood unions actually have laws in place to prevent that.&nbsp; To finish off production, and to supervise reshoots, <i>Star Wars </i>boss Kathleen Kennedy brought it Hollywood legend Ron Howard.&nbsp; Howard had actually been circling <i>Star Wars </i>for a while, believe it or not.&nbsp; Howard is good friends with George Lucas, having started in Lucas's <i>American Graffiti </i>back in the day, and directed the Lucas written and produced <i>Willow</i>.&nbsp; A few years back, Howard even revealed that Lucas asked him to direct <i>The Phantom Menace</i>, but Howard declined, instead choosing to encourage Lucas to get back on that directing horse.<br /><br />Howard took charge and the re-shoots grew longer...and longer...and longer.&nbsp; The longer reshoots went, the more people started worrying about how bad the film would be.<br /><br />The fear kicked into overdrive back in November.&nbsp; With this being a May release, November is usually when they hype train starts.&nbsp; Gotta get the trailer in theatres to run in front of all those Christmas blockbusters.&nbsp; November came and went.&nbsp; No trailer.&nbsp; December came along.&nbsp; People were like, "Hey!&nbsp; In front of <i>Last Jedi </i>would be very appropriate!"&nbsp; But still, no trailer.&nbsp; January was coming to a close.&nbsp; Sheer panic was setting in among the fans.&nbsp; How bad is the film that it's five months from release and they won't let us see any footage from it yet?<br /><br />Some mild relief finally came back on Thursday with the revelation that there would be a Super Bowl spot, followed by a full trailer the next day.&nbsp; Kicking off the hype for a May blockbuster at the start of February.&nbsp; Not unheard of, but no longer common.<br /><br />When that Super Bowl spot aired, I got pretty jazzed.&nbsp; I mean, it's new <i>Star Wars</i>.&nbsp; I'll always get excited for new <i>Star Wars</i>.&nbsp; I was there opening day for <a href="https://youtu.be/Tas9_TYri4w" target="_blank">the shitty <i>Clone Wars </i>animated movie</a>, so I'll be there for <i>Solo</i>, no matter its productions woes.<br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Szts88zY4o" width="560"></iframe></center><br />Speaking of <i>The Clone Wars</i>, I'm digging that rock/electronic/<i>Clone Wars</i>-style music rockin' in that trailer.&nbsp; John Powell (The Jason Bourne movies and a bunch of DreamWorks animated films) is doing the score, with <i>Star Wars </i>composer emeritus John Williams providing the main theme.<br /><br />Anyways, a day later, we get the full trailer.&nbsp; I'm sharing them both, because there's surprisingly very little recycling of footage.<br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dNW0B0HsvVs" width="560"></iframe></center><br />I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.&nbsp; I mean, it's <i>Star Wars</i>.&nbsp; We've got spaceships going fast, I love that shot of a the Star Destroyer emerging from the clouds.&nbsp; I'm liking what I'm seeing so far, but we're going to have to wait for when it comes out on May 25 to see if the whole thing comes together.&nbsp;<br /><br />Alden Ehrenreich is our young Han Solo, Donald Glover of <i>Community </i>fame is young Lando Calrissian, Emilia Clarke from <i>Game of Thrones </i>is someone named Qi'ra, Woody Harrelson is Solo's mentor, and Joonas Suotamo begins taking over for Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca.&nbsp;<br /><br /><i>Solo: A Star Wars Story </i>comes out May 25.&nbsp; Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-24848922097025066152018-02-01T00:30:00.000-07:002018-02-01T00:30:22.558-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - Kong: Skull IslandHere we go again, on Fishing in the Discount Bin.&nbsp; I watch a movie, and blog about it, because I've bought a lot of movies, and this makes me feel like it was worth it.&nbsp; Rolling out <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kong:_Skull_Island" target="_blank"><i>Kong: Skull Island </i></a>this week.&nbsp; This is originally in my notes at July 22, 2017.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/Kong_Skull_Island_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="220" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/Kong_Skull_Island_poster.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />When Legendary Entertainment first announced <i>Kong:&nbsp; Skull Island</i>, it was met with a resounding "meh."&nbsp; I&nbsp;mean, it was just 10 short years since Peter Jackson gave us his take on <i>King Kong</i>, so another reboot of the Kong mythology hardly seemed necessary.&nbsp; But then, Legendary pulled a move that was just pure genius.<br /><br />Legendary was producing <i>Kong:&nbsp; Skull island </i>for Universal, the owners of King Kong.&nbsp; Across the street at Warner Brothers, Legendary was producing the <i>Godzilla </i>reboot.&nbsp; So, one day, Legendary went to Universal and said, "Hey, can we move <i>Kong:&nbsp; Skull Island </i>across the street to Warner Brothers?"&nbsp; Universal said, "Sure."&nbsp; And with that, the MonsterVerse cinematic universe was born!&nbsp; After <i>Kong: Skull Island</i> would be <i>Godzilla 2</i> (now officially titled <i>Godzilla:&nbsp; King of the Monsters</i>), and it'll cap off with <i>Kong vs. Godzilla</i>. <br /><br />As one article I read online not too long ago pointed out, thanks to Marvel and SHIELD, one of the cliches of a cinematic universe is you need a shadowy government agency to bring everything together.&nbsp; In the MonsterVerse, it's Monarch, the organization charged with tracking and monitoring these giant monsters (or, massive unidentified terrestrial organisms, to use the MonsterVerse's term).&nbsp; <i>Kong:&nbsp; Skull Island </i>takes place in 1973.&nbsp; Monarch is about to get shut down because there hasn't been any giant monster sightings in quite some time.&nbsp; The director of Monarch, John Goodman, makes his case.&nbsp; This new technology called satellite imaging has uncovered the long fabled Skull Island.&nbsp; Thanks to a storm system that has cut off the island from the rest of the world, this island has remained untouched since prehistoric times.&nbsp; John Goodman figures if there are any giant monsters from prehistoric times, this is where they'll be.&nbsp; So, he manages to sneak along with the satellite imaging team that's going to explore the island.&nbsp; <br /><br />Of course, they'll need a guide and tracker to help them navigate the island, so they go to your standard rough and tumble bar and pick up rough and tumble Tom Hiddleston.&nbsp; <br /><br />Being 1973, this is also the final days of the Vietnam War.&nbsp; They'll need a security escort on this island, so Colonel Samuel L. Jackson gets the call.&nbsp; He's kind of bitter at the USA&nbsp;pulling out of Vietnam ("We didn't lose the war, we abandoned it," he tells one character), so he jumps at the chance for one last mission, even if it is security detail for a bunch of eggheads.&nbsp; <br /><br />With all this going on, war photographer Brie Larson smells a story, so she manages to join the expedition to cover it.&nbsp; <br /><br />Our team's assembled, and they head to Skull Island.&nbsp; They being doing their seismic testing as part of their geological survey.&nbsp; For those who don't know, that's when you set off explosives to see what's underground.&nbsp; And of course, the bombs awaken...Kong, who promptly lays waste to the expedition.&nbsp; <br /><br />And here's where the main plot begins.&nbsp; Our survivors are split into two camps.&nbsp; There's Samuel L. Jackson, who wants to avenge his soldiers that Kong killed and take down Kong.&nbsp; And there's Hiddleston and Larson, who just want to get the hell off the island.&nbsp; <br /><br />Hiddleston and Larson are soon joined by John C. Riley.&nbsp; He's a World War II pilot who crashed on the island, and his been stuck there for almost 30 years.&nbsp; Needless to say, he's gone a little bit loopy, but he's eager to join Hiddleston and Larson and finally get home.&nbsp; <br /><br />And this is where I've got to give the film credit.&nbsp; As much as I love giant monster movies, the #1 complaint I always have about them is they can never figure out what to get the humans to do.&nbsp; I&nbsp;mean, we all know that the human plotlines are just filler until the giant monsters fight.&nbsp; But damn it, in <i>Kong: Skull Island </i>makes a real effort to make our humans interesting.&nbsp; Best of all is, of course, Samuel L. Jackson, doing his best Captain Ahab as he grows more and more obsessed with killing Kong.&nbsp; John Goodman is a more subdued version of this archetype.&nbsp; It was his obsession that got them to his island, and he's starting to let it go as he sees how it destroys Jackson.&nbsp; <br /><br />And John C. Riley, man.&nbsp; He's great, too, as you can never tell if he's just joking or if he's actually gone insane as part of his time on the island.&nbsp; <br /><br />Strangely, despite being the first big name attached to the cast, and played up as the lead, Tom Hiddleston comes across as the most bland character.&nbsp; Hell, you even tend to forget he's in the film until he wanders back in and delivers some survival advice.&nbsp; Hiddleston needed more to do, darn it.&nbsp; <br /><br />Actually, I still think the biggest waste is the Japanese woman, whose name escapes me.&nbsp; (Hell, <i>all </i>the characters' names escape me, which is why I'm referring to their actor names).&nbsp; John Goodman brings some of his proteges from Monarch along to help document the findings, and one of them is a Japanese woman.&nbsp; Now, I'm pretty sure the only reason why she's there is to make sure Japan is represented and to remind us that this is part of the greater <i>Godzilla </i>universe.&nbsp; But, dude, she's only got six lines, and most of them are relegated to "Look out!"&nbsp; I mean, at the very least, since she's this Monarch scientist, she could have been making notes on the monsters.&nbsp; Brie Larson, as the photographer, could have been snapping picture of the monsters.&nbsp; Have a scene where they sit down to compare notes about their findings, and BOOM!&nbsp; You pass the Bechdel test!&nbsp; THIS ISN'T HARD, PEOPLE!<br /><br />Since this is a giant monster movie, the big question is, how are the giant monster fights?&nbsp; And there is some pretty cool giant monster action.&nbsp; It starts with Kong laying waste to the expedition, which is Kong vs. about a dozen helicopters.&nbsp; The other main giant monster on the island are called Skullwalkers.&nbsp; The look like giant snakes with two legs, and a large, pointed, bone-white head.&nbsp; The climactic battle is Kong taking on the lead Skullwalker, and it is a a magnificent fight.&nbsp; The fight takes place in a ship's graveyard on the island, and I love how Kong improvises weapons out of the ship parts.&nbsp; A flail made from a ship's anchor chain and propeller?&nbsp; Awesome.&nbsp; Wrapping it around his wrist to use as a gauntlet?&nbsp; Super-cool. &nbsp; <br /><br /><i>Kong:&nbsp; Skull Island </i>was good, but not great.&nbsp; Very entertaining.&nbsp; I liked the genuine effort to make the characters interesting in a giant monster movie.&nbsp; Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-66358705875824122742018-01-29T00:30:00.000-07:002018-01-29T00:30:42.396-07:00Scarecrow's Oscar Picks: 2018 EditionWell, it's that time of year again.&nbsp; This year's Oscar nominations were announced about a week ago, so it's time to dust off a tradition I've been doing in all 20 years of my online presence.&nbsp; Yes, it's time for....<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Opm3iv63KYs/WmyvtoFAUeI/AAAAAAAACQs/tLjHoQR8-24LtOlg9tOh9v3oldYgNV7XACLcBGAs/s1600/oscar.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Scarecrow's Oscar Picks! (The logo I designed in Photoshp back in 1997)" border="0" data-original-height="103" data-original-width="263" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Opm3iv63KYs/WmyvtoFAUeI/AAAAAAAACQs/tLjHoQR8-24LtOlg9tOh9v3oldYgNV7XACLcBGAs/s1600/oscar.gif" title="Scarecrow's Oscar Picks! (The logo I designed in Photoshp back in 1997)" /></a></div><br />Now, as I've been explaining for 20 years, I like to do my Oscar picks a little bit differently.&nbsp; Everywhere you go, you're going to see the picks for the big categories like Best Director and Best Actor, so I'm going to focus my picks on the categories that only I care about:&nbsp; Best Original Song, and Best Visual Effects.&nbsp; Plus, those are the two that I have a pretty good track record in selecting the winners.&nbsp; I also love animated films, so when the Best Animated Film Oscar came along in 2002, I started doing that one as well.&nbsp; Let's get to it!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u>Best Visual Effects</u></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The nominees are:</div><ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_2049" target="_blank">Blade Runner 2049</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol._2" target="_blank">Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kong:_Skull_Island" target="_blank">Kong:&nbsp; Skull Island</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Last_Jedi" target="_blank">Star Wars: The Last Jedi</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_for_the_Planet_of_the_Apes" target="_blank">War for the Planet of the Apes</a></li></ul>My thoughts:<br /><br />OK, right away, we can strike out <i>Star Wars </i>and <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i>.&nbsp; Spaceships whizzing through space, laser guns, blue screen sets, CGI creatures...been there, done that.&nbsp; Same with <i>Kong</i>.&nbsp; Yeah, we've seen the giant monkey before.&nbsp; Now, <i>War for the Planet of the Apes</i> won a lot of praise for Andy Serkis's performance...some even saying he should have picked up a best actor nomination.&nbsp; So, as that never happened, giving <i>Planet of the Apes</i> the Best Visual Effects Oscar might be the next best thing.&nbsp; On the other hand, <i>Blade Runner 2049</i> had a lot of fans, and was praised for the lengths its effects went to to create the futuristic world of 2049, much like how the original film was praised for it's visual flair. <br /><br />My pick:<br /><br />Between nostalgia and lots of critical love, I'm putting my money on <i>Blade Runner 2049</i>. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u>Best Original Song</u></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The nominees are:</div><ul><li>"<a href="https://youtu.be/Yd2ht5aF-2E" target="_blank">Mighty River</a>" from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudbound_(film)" target="_blank"><i>Mudbound</i></a></li><li>"<a href="https://youtu.be/KQT32vW61eI" target="_blank">Mystery of Love</a>" from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_Me_by_Your_Name_(film)" target="_blank"><i>Call Me By Your Name</i></a></li><li>"<a href="https://youtu.be/3iDxU9eNQ_0" target="_blank">Remember Me</a>" from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_(2017_film)" target="_blank"><i>Coco</i></a></li><li>"<a href="https://youtu.be/2GhY7qXGx-0" target="_blank">Stand Up for Something</a>" from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_(film)" target="_blank"><i>Marshall</i></a></li><li>"<a href="https://youtu.be/CjxugyZCfuw" target="_blank">This Is Me</a>" from <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Showman" target="_blank">The Greatest Showman</a> </i></li></ul>My thoughts:<br /><br />There's a reason why my winning streak started 20 years ago.&nbsp; It was the height of the Disney Renaissance, and picking the song from the Disney animated film was a sure thing.&nbsp; So purely for nostalgia's sake, I want to go with <i>Remember Me</i>.&nbsp; That being said, <i>The Greatest Showman</i> is an old-school musical, ans as we saw with <i>La La Land </i>last year, there's a bit of a resurgence of old-school musicals these days.&nbsp; So I think this category is going to come down to <i>Remember Me </i>and <i>This Is Me</i>.<br /><br />My pick:<br /><br /><i>This Is Me</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u>Best Animated Film</u></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Nominees Are:</div><ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boss_Baby" target="_blank">The Boss Baby</a></li><li>T<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Breadwinner_(film)" target="_blank">he Breadwinner</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_(2017_film)" target="_blank">Coco</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_(film)" target="_blank">Ferdinand</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_Vincent" target="_blank">Loving Vincent</a><i> </i></li></ul>My thoughts:<br /><br />Well, Pixar is the studio with the most wins in this category, so my gut has to go with <i>Coco</i>.&nbsp; That being said, <i>The Breadwinner</i>'s director Nora Twomey has been circling this category for a while, having directed the 2009 nominee <i>The Secret of Kells </i>and having worked on the 2014 nominee <i>Song of the Sea.&nbsp; </i>However, they have made some changes to the category this year.&nbsp; In all the Oscar categories, only people who work in that category could vote for the winner.&nbsp; For example, only directors would vote for Best Director, actors for Best Actor, and animators for Best Animated Film.&nbsp; Starting this year, Best Animated Film works like Best Picture...<i>everyone </i>gets to vote for it.&nbsp; The logic is the same reason why Best Picture was opened up to 9 nominees a few years ago:&nbsp; it'll open up the category to more mainstream films, and less art house films that no one has heard of.&nbsp; And no offense to Ms Twomey, but how many of you had heard of <i>The Breadwinner </i>before this?<br /><br />My pick:<br /><br /><i>Coco</i><br /><br />And, as always, as a concession to the mainstream, the biggest of the mainstream categories....<br /><i> </i><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u>Best Picture</u></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i></i><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Nominees Are:</div><ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_Me_by_Your_Name_(film)" target="_blank">Call Me By Your Name</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkest_Hour_(film)" target="_blank">Darkest Hour</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_(2017_film)" target="_blank">Dunkirk</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Out" target="_blank">Get Out</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Bird_(film)" target="_blank">Lady Bird</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Thread" target="_blank">Phantom Thread</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_(film)" target="_blank">The Post</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shape_of_Water_(film)" target="_blank">The Shape of Water</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Billboards_Outside_Ebbing,_Missouri" target="_blank">Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri</a></li></ul>My thoughts:<br /><br />We're coming up on 10 years now of more than five nominees, and I still don't agree with it.&nbsp; "It'll open up the category to more mainstream films, and less art house films that no one has heard of!" said the Academy.&nbsp; But what's happened?&nbsp; it seems like more art house films that no one has heard of are getting nominated.&nbsp; That being said, <i>Get Out </i>is exactly the kind of mainstream hit that the critics loved that they wanted to see get nominated.&nbsp; At the other end of the spectrum, <i>Three Billboards </i>is already being likened by many to this year's <i>Crash</i>, as a movie that's getting wildly overblown.&nbsp; But still, the giddy thrill for me is seeing <i>The Shape of Water </i>get nominated.&nbsp; The most nominees this year, with 13.&nbsp; Who would have thought that a love story between a mute woman and a sea monster from the director of <i>Hellboy </i>would get so much love!&nbsp; But then, Guillermo del Toro did also do <i>Pan's Labyrinth, </i>which got a lot of Oscar love 10 years ago.&nbsp;<br /><br />My pick:<br /><br />I really want <i>The Shape of Water </i>to win.&nbsp; And I really want to see it now, too. <br /><br />One last rant.&nbsp; Guillermo del Toto was in talks with Universal Studios to come on board with their Dark Universe...their cinematic universe based on their classic monsters, that looks like it began and ended with Tom Cruise's <i>The Mummy</i>.&nbsp; Del Toro's pet project was a remake of <i>The Creature from the Black Lagoon</i>, and del Toro allegedly put a lot of his <i>Black Lagoon </i>ideas into <i>The Shape of Water</i>.&nbsp; So just think.&nbsp; In a parallel universe, <i>The Shape of Water </i>wound up being the <i>Creature from the Black Lagoon </i>reboot that kicked off Dark Universe!<br /><br />The 90th Academy Awards are on March 4. &nbsp;&nbsp; Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-20214484384746211912018-01-25T00:30:00.000-07:002018-01-25T00:30:42.417-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - Power RangersHe we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, watching movies and blogging about them, because a friend once told me it would be a neat thing for me to do.&nbsp; Good thing he never told me to go jump off a bridge.&nbsp; Anyway, today, we touch upon the 2017 gritty reboot of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Rangers_(film)"><i>Power Rangers</i></a>.&nbsp; This is in my notes at July 3, 2017. <br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/Power_Rangers_(2017_Official_Theatrical_Poster).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="220" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/Power_Rangers_(2017_Official_Theatrical_Poster).png" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Well, looks like 1980s nostalgia is starting to wind down, so that means it's time to ramp up 1990s nostalgia!&nbsp; And it all starts with our grim and gritty reboot of <i>Power Rangers</i>.<br /><br />My God, I found this movie to be such a nostalgia high.&nbsp; I mean, there's one scene, where the Rangers are training to be Rangers.&nbsp; Zack discovers the Zords, and takes his out for a test spin, almost blowing their secret identities and endangering the team.&nbsp; Jason chastises him. &nbsp;It almost comes to blows.&nbsp; Billy breaks them up.<br /><br />I watched that scene in the theatre and was like "Oh my God, that was in the fanfic I wrote in high school."&nbsp; <br /><br />I mean, it's not so much that this is a grim and gritty reboot of <i>Power Rangers</i>.&nbsp; Instead, they dialed down the camp and took the material seriously.&nbsp; And the end result is just another generic superhero film.&nbsp; But nostalgia!<br /><br />The one thing that they took seriously was that these recruits are "teenagers with attitude."&nbsp; And such attitude!&nbsp; What makes these particular teens so moody?<br /><br />Jason, the Red Ranger - The source of his angst is what starts the film.&nbsp; Starting quarterback for the high school football team.&nbsp; But, a senior prank results in a massive car accident, leading to him blowing out his knee and being placed under house arrest.&nbsp; He blows the season for his high school team, making him a social pariah, and blows his chances at a college scholarship, putting him on the outs with his dad.<br /><br />Kimberly, the Pink Ranger - We're originally told that she punched her boyfriend in the face and knocked a tooth out, but later in the film, we find out why.&nbsp; One of her friends, goofing around one night, texted her a nude photo.&nbsp; Kimberly forwarded it to her clique, along with some body-shaming comments.&nbsp; Her boyfriend called her "the meanest woman alive" for doing that, and she retaliated with the punch.&nbsp; Oh, and she got thrown out of her clique.<br /><br />Billy, the Blue Ranger - Our first autistic superhero in our spate of superhero films.&nbsp; Billy is a savant when it comes to science, and one time, he accidentally built a bomb and blew up his locker. <br /><br />Zack, the Black Ranger - He's caring for his ailing mother, meaning he skips school a lot, and the extreme stunts he pulls are his way of coping.<br /><br />Trini, the Yellow Ranger - And here's the one that made headlines when the film came out.&nbsp; Trini is a lesbian.&nbsp; She's still coming to terms with her sexual identity, and her family is being less than supportive, leading to a lot of turmoil at home.&nbsp; In our spate of superhero films, Trini is the first openly gay superhero. &nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />And this winds up being the core crux of the film.&nbsp; They can't morph and become Power Rangers until they trust each other and think only of each other, and despite all the awesome martial arts training, they don't really start doing that until they let their guard down and start telling each other about their issues.&nbsp; <br /><br />So, <i>Power Rangers </i>makes for a pretty good teen melodrama.&nbsp; Then they remember it's a <i>Power Rangers </i>movie, and tack on a typical episode for act 3.<br /><br />Seriously, what was the typical formula for an episode?&nbsp; The fight the Putties, they fight the monster, Rita makes her monster grow, the call on the Zords to fight the giant monster.&nbsp; Evil is defeated.&nbsp; And, because all of these superhero films have an extended action sequence for their third act, what happens in the third act?&nbsp; They fight the Putties, they fight the monster, Rita makes her monster grow, they call the Zords to fight the giant monster.&nbsp; SPOILER WARNING.&nbsp; Evil is defeated.&nbsp; <br /><br />Yeah, my biggest complaint is it takes them far too long to morph and for this to become a <i>Power Rangers </i>movie.&nbsp; That being said, it's nice to see the origin story told in such a decompressed manner.&nbsp; <br /><br />There is a lot of good, like how they explore the Power Rangers mythology.&nbsp; I like that they made Zordon the original Red Ranger.&nbsp; I like that Rita is revealed to be the original Green Ranger, fallen from grace and bent on galactic domination.<br /><br />And man o man, Elizabeth Banks just seals the show as Rita.&nbsp; With all the superhero films out there, we don't see a lot of, moustache-twirling, just pure evil villain any more.&nbsp; And that's how Banks plays Rita and it's just so delightful.&nbsp; <br /><br />Anyway.&nbsp; I wish they just finished the origin story earlier in the film and had more Power Ranger action.&nbsp; Especially since it didn't do well enough at the box office for their six-film franchise to get off the ground.&nbsp; Oh, well.&nbsp; They say it still did pretty good in merchandise sales, so we might get #2 after all<br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-9594814484350155782018-01-18T00:30:00.000-07:002018-01-18T00:30:15.917-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Lego Batman MovieTime to roll again on Fishing in the Discount Bin.&nbsp; Watching movies, blogging about them, all because one day my best friend said to me, "Hey, do you know what you should do?"&nbsp; Today, I'm watching <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lego_Batman_Movie"><i>The Lego Batman Movie</i></a>.&nbsp; This is originally in my notes at July 2, 2018.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/61/The_Lego_Batman_Movie_PromotionalPoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="220" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/61/The_Lego_Batman_Movie_PromotionalPoster.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Lego Batman was one of the true scene-stealers in <i>The Lego Movie</i>, so it just made sense to give him his own movie.&nbsp; But, would he work in a solo film?&nbsp; Usually, when the comedic sidekick is given his own film, the results are less than stellar (see <i>Cars 2</i> and <i>Minions</i>).&nbsp; Lego Batman, though, had an advantage;&nbsp; the rich <i>Bamtan </i>mythology to mine and spoof.&nbsp; <br /><br />I tell you, there are so many <i>Batman </i>Easter eggs and tiny references, you've got to watch this film frame-by-frame to catch them all.&nbsp; The one I caught the first time when I saw the film in theares is Alfred's parenting book is written by Dr. Bartholomew Wolper.&nbsp; Dr. Wolper is the super-sensitive, new-age psychiatrist who declared the Joker "cured" in the legendary graphic novel <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i>.&nbsp; Or my favourite not-so-subtle one, "We are going to punch these guys so hard that words describing the impact will spontaneously appear over their heads."&nbsp; Cue the classic 1960's <i>Batman </i>theme, as a fight breaks out with all the requisite "Pows!" and "Whams!"&nbsp; <br /><br />It was surprising, though, how they don't really play with the Lego-ness of the universe that much.&nbsp; Makes sense, seeing as to how that was very well-covered in <i>The Lego Movie</i>.&nbsp; There's a couple of times where Batman uses his "master builder"&nbsp;skills to whip up a new Bat-vehicle from the Lego bricks in his surrounds, and a gag about how Gotham City is built upon "two&nbsp; unstable plates that could separate at the slightest bump, plunging us all into an abyss that smells like dirty socks," but that's about it.&nbsp; <br /><br />The best thing, though, is out of all the superhero films, this is the only one that really does an in-depth exploration of the whole "I work alone"&nbsp;trope.&nbsp; Batman has always boasted about how does it alone.&nbsp; But now, thanks to some offhand comments he made at a gala, he's adopted Dick Grayson, who's desperate for a father figure.&nbsp; New police commissioner Barbara Gordon annoys Batman with her radical new idea of Batman and the GCPD actually working together.&nbsp; And Alfred's trying to reach out to Batman to be a surrogate father figure.&nbsp; Can Batman open up his heart and love these people when they all want to love him?<br /><br />And then on the opposite end of the spectrum we have the Joker, who's trying to get Batman to admit that Batman <i>hates </i>the Joker, and Batman can't do what he can without the Joker.&nbsp; I mean, the heartbreak the Joker goes through when Batman's all, "I don't think about you at all.&nbsp; You're just another random villain to me," is kinda funny.&nbsp; My only complaint is, watching it again on Blu-Ran, I found Zack Gallifinakis's voice acting as the Joker to be a little flat.&nbsp; <br /><br /><i>The Lego Batman Movie </i>is just fun, fun, fun.&nbsp; Check it out, if you haven't already.<br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-85545818672864950242018-01-11T00:30:00.000-07:002018-01-11T00:30:10.896-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - LoganTime to roll out Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I blog about one of the movies I own, because really, I've got nothing better to do.&nbsp; We start moving on to films that came out a year ago with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_(film)"><i>Logan</i>.</a>&nbsp; This is in my notes at May 28. 2017.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/37/Logan_2017_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="220" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/37/Logan_2017_poster.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />I can't believe we're here.&nbsp; Back in the year 2000, we were all so excited at the prospect of an <i>X-Men </i>movie and we were introduced to a dashing young Aussie named Hugh Jackman to play everyone's favourite X-Man, Wolverine.&nbsp; And here we are now, 17 years and 9 films later, Hugh Jackman has decided to call it quits.&nbsp; And <i>Logan </i>is one hell of a way to go out on.<br /><br />This is very different from other superhero films&nbsp; Firstly, that R-rating means we can get the violent Wolverine we've always known.&nbsp; There's blood.&nbsp; There's decapitations.&nbsp; I mean, when you're talking about a hero who's best known superpower is retractable knives in his hands, of course things are going to get bloody.&nbsp; But you know what?&nbsp; It's not gratuitous.&nbsp; It just makes things a little more realistic.&nbsp; <br /><br />But what really got me is how 1970s this is.&nbsp; From the washed-out colours to the score, everything feels like an action thriller from the 1970s.&nbsp; <br /><br />Takings its cues from the comic <i>Old Man Logan</i>, we open in the year 2029.&nbsp; Logan is now broken and battered.&nbsp; Something's wrong with his healing factor, and he doesn't heal as quickly as he used to.&nbsp; In fact, we're pretty sure he's dying.&nbsp; (We learn near the end that he's being poisoned by his adamantium bones.)&nbsp; He makes his living as an Uber driver.&nbsp; There have been no mutants born in years, and it looks like mutants are dying off.&nbsp; Logan lives just south of the Mexican border, caring for an old and frail Professor Charles Xavier.&nbsp; Xavier is suffering from Alzheimer's and seizures, and with his powerful psychic abilities, that makes him very dangerous.&nbsp; <br /><br />And then, into their laps, drops a little girl, Laura.&nbsp; A new mutant, born and grown in a lab.&nbsp; But not just any mutant...Logan's DNA&nbsp;was used to create her, so she's got claws like Logan's...and an equally bad temper.&nbsp; After escaping from the lab, and pursued by shadowy forces, Logan, Xavier, and Laura begin heading towards a mythical safe haven called Eden.&nbsp; Will Wolverine survive his final journey?&nbsp; <br /><br />Not only is Hugh Jackman good as Logan, but Patrick Stewart also shines as our elderly Professor X.&nbsp; Just seeing him, and his interactions with Logan, all I'll say is that's a very accurate representation of dealing with an elderly parent.&nbsp; <br /><br />As with most Marvel movies, the villains are kind of "meh," but you know what?&nbsp; Who cares.&nbsp; This is Logan's story.&nbsp; <br /><br />All in all, <i>Logan </i>is a very fine sendoff to Hugh Jackman as Wolverine...well, until Fox and Marvel get something worked out and he can fight the Hulk.<br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-47602558404874190662018-01-04T00:30:00.000-07:002018-01-04T06:16:09.423-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - Basic InstinctHere we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blog about a movie I own, because I own 'em, so I may as well watch 'em.&nbsp; Today, we'll take a look at <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Instinct" target="_blank">Basic Instinct</a></i>.&nbsp; This is in my notes at May 21, 2017<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f9/Basic_instinct.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="260" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f9/Basic_instinct.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br />Ah, <i>Basic Instinct</i>.&nbsp; The film that made Sharon Stone a star.&nbsp; The film that made headlines in 1992 for its steamy sex scenes, and it's depiction of the LGBT community.&nbsp; The film that represented the peak of the erotic thriller as a genre from the late 1980s through the mid 1990s.&nbsp; Which is kinda strange, because the same creative team -- director Paul Verhoeven and writer Joe Ezterhaus -- pretty much killed the genre just five short years later with <i>Showgirls</i>.&nbsp; <i>Showgirls</i>...that's another one on the list of "classics I've never seen."&nbsp; I almost bought the Blu-ray and HMV's liquidation sale, but I didn't.&nbsp; But I digress.<br /><br />I remember seeing <i>Basic Instinct </i>shortly after it came out on video.&nbsp; My parents were off at some function, my sister was over at a friend's house, so it was just me and my brother.&nbsp; We went down to the corner store to rent some movies, and hearing the tales of the film's sex scenes, we decided to rent it.&nbsp; From what I remember of that initial viewing, once you got past the boobs, it was kinda boring.&nbsp; <br /><br />The special edition DVD&nbsp;came out in the early 2000s, and from what I remember of the home theatre message boards I frequented in those days, it's a much praised special edition, with good bonus features and insightful running commentaries.&nbsp; So you can imagine my surprise when I saw it in the discount bin at Value Drug Mart in Athabasca for just $3.&nbsp; Then&nbsp;I noticed that there was a 50% of sticker on top of it being in the $3.&nbsp; "It's only $1.50!" I said in amazement.&nbsp; "I could literally buy this with my pocket change!"&nbsp; So I did.&nbsp; <br /><br />Michael Douglas is Nick Curran, your standard cop-on-the-edge, a role Douglas played a lot in the late 80s/early 90s.&nbsp; His latest case has him investigating the murder of retired rocker Johnny Boz, found stabbed to death by an ice pick.&nbsp; The prime suspect:&nbsp; Boz's lover, novelist and psychoanalyst Catherine Tramell, Turns out Tramell had written a novel some years before which perfectly outlined Boz's murder.&nbsp; As Nick begins investigating Tramell, he finds herself drawn to her, and soon sucked in to her hedonistic world of sex and drugs.&nbsp; And it all leads him to doubt as to whether she's guilty or not.&nbsp; Is she innocent?&nbsp; Or is she just playing with Nick's head?<br /><br />Obviously, it's the second one, as <i>every other character in the film points out to him</i>.&nbsp; It almost gets kind of ridiculous as the other characters point out how Nick is being manipulated by Catherine, only for the next scene to play out exactly as described to Nick.&nbsp; <br /><br />But there is lots of good in it.&nbsp; Sharon Stone is stellar.&nbsp; You can see how this made her a star, as she's able to be cold and manipulative in one scene, and have it melt into seductive tenderness.&nbsp; And the late, great Jerry Goldsmith actually puts together an amazing score for this film.&nbsp; Very reminiscent of some his sci-fi work.&nbsp; <br /><br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YMjiwEtwggM" width="560"></iframe></center><br />So, yeah.I find <i>Basic Instinct </i>to be kind of bland, when it's all said and doneMark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-24965577644439521562018-01-01T00:30:00.000-07:002018-01-01T00:30:18.497-07:00Random Thoughts from Christmas VacationWhen I was a kid, I collected Christmas specials.&nbsp; Every holiday season, whenever a new animated special would come along, I would record it.&nbsp; In the end, I had three VHS tapes full of holiday specials.&nbsp; I meticulously catalogued them, so I wouldn't accidentally get a duplicate.&nbsp; And, of course, when I started building my first website 20 years ago, I posted my catalogue online.<br /><br />Which meant that, every year around this time, I would get a half-a-dozen e-mails or so requesting a copy of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0899197/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank"><i>A Mouse, a Mystery, and Me</i></a>.&nbsp; This particular special was a mainstay on Edmonton television, no doubt because it was actually filmed in Edmonton.&nbsp; I'm starting to suspect that ITV (now Global Edmonton) was actually a co-producer, as I've noticed the Allard name quite prominent in the end credits.&nbsp; (Charles Allard was the founder of ITV, and a pretty big deal in Canadian broadcasting in the 70s and 80s.)<br /><br />The special is about the kidnapping of a department store Santa, and a kid enlisting the help of the mystery novelist in the neighbourhood to investigate.&nbsp; Turns out our mystery novelist has a writing partner, a talking animated mouse named Alex, and together they get to the bottom of who kidnapped Santa.<br /><br />Anyway, I could never present a copy on VHS to anyone because, by the time all this started going down, Mom had taped over my collection with <i>Coronation Street</i>.&nbsp; Luckily, we now have this thing called YouTube, and I see someone else has posted <i>A Mouse, a Mystery, and Me</i>.<br /><br />So...enjoy!<br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gz-dQ1g4cCU" width="560"></iframe></center><br /><hr /><br />As I've been talking about on social media, I fell in love with this documentary series on Netflix called <i>The Toys That Made Us</i>, which is all about the classic toys lines of the 1980s. Brought back a lot of strange memories.<br /><br />I loved the episode about <i>G.I. Joe</i>.&nbsp; When I first started taking up action figure collection as a<i>G.I. Joe</i> toy line was starting to wind down.&nbsp; I would take a look at the <i>G.I. Joe</i>s for old times sake, before heading over to the <i>Star Trek </i>aisle.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.yojoe.com/action/94/soldier.shtml" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="G.I. Joe 30th Anniversary Actioin Soldier. Pic from YoJoe.com" border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="1000" height="297" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RT-nb9dSUoA/WklSlLKo9SI/AAAAAAAACPA/iTwbaLDoWrMyYy56QMu6e092QJskZIKqQCLcBGAs/s320/actionsoldier.jpg" title="G.I. Joe 30th Anniversary Actioin Soldier. Pic from YoJoe.com" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">G.I. Joe 30th Anniversary Action Soldier<br />Pic from <a href="http://yojoe.com/">YoJoe.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table>hobby in my teen years, it was when the classic 3.75" <br /><br />In 1994, for the 30th anniversary of the <i>G.I. Joe</i> franchise, Hasbro made these beautiful figures.&nbsp; They were exact re-creations of the original 12" Joes from the 1960s, only shrunk down to the 3.75" scale that was popular at the time.&nbsp; So you could have the original Action Soldier and Action Marine having adventures alongside the new guard like Duke and Snake Eyes.&nbsp; They were in lovely collectors boxes, and came with accessories up the wazoo.&nbsp; The Action Soldier had a little bunker, the Action Pilot had the real working parachute pack...all kinds of good stuff.&nbsp; <br /><br />I remember always taking a look at them at Toys R Us, always seriously considered buying one or two for my fledgling collection, but ultimately not picking one up.&nbsp; I kind of regret that, now, because, even back then, I thought they were really, really cool.<br /><br />I see collectors are selling them for around $50 on eBay now, so if I ever have a little more disposable income....<br /><br /><br /><hr /><br />I see that the animated special <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123099/?ref_=nv_sr_4" target="_blank"><i>Happy New Year, Charlie Brown</i></a> is starting to enjoy a resurgence in recent years.&nbsp; I remember it being part of my Christmas special collection all those years ago.&nbsp; Because the universe hates Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown has the Christmas vacation homework assignment to do a book report on <i>War and Peace</i>.&nbsp; But he has difficulty reading the novel as he's constantly getting distracted by the preparations for Peppermint Patty's epic new years party.<br /><br />Like this cute little musical number, where they all take dancing lessons so they can dance on New Years Eve.<br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5E08jWFTarQ" width="560"></iframe></center><br />Just because this is the kind of information I've filled my head with...the singer of that song is Desiree Goyette.&nbsp; She wrote and performed a lot of the songs in <i>Garfield </i>and <i>Charlie Brown </i>animated specials throughout the 1980s.&nbsp; Did some voice acting, too, as perhaps her most famous role would be Nermal, the self-described "world's cutest kitty cat," on <i>Garfield and Friends</i>.&nbsp; Doing a quick google of her, I see she's still quite active as a singer/songwriter.&nbsp; Does mostly gospel now.&nbsp;<br /><br />You can tell when I watch <i>Happy New Year, Charlie Brown</i>, because I'll always take to twitter to share Charlie Brown's new years resolution:&nbsp; "You know how I typically dread the entire year?&nbsp; Well this time, I'm only going to dread one day at a time."&nbsp;<br /><br />Actually I do like that entire scene.&nbsp; It opens with Peppermint Patty asking Charlie Brown if he has any good rules for life in the new year.&nbsp; Says Charlie Brown:<br /><ul><li>Keep the ball low</li><li>Don't leave your crayons in the sun</li><li>Use dental floss every day</li><li>Don't spill the shoe polish</li><li>Always knock before entering</li><li>Don't let the ants get in the sugar</li><li>Never volunteer to be a program chair</li><li>Always get your first serving</li><li>Feed your dog whenever he's hungry</li></ul>So please.&nbsp; Take those words with you into 2018! &nbsp; Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-59121995926984404562017-12-28T00:30:00.000-07:002017-12-28T00:30:22.017-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - ShrekHere we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blog about a movie I own.&nbsp; Time to take a look at what started one of the biggest animated movie franchises of all time, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek" target="_blank"><i>Shrek</i></a>.&nbsp; This is in my notes at May 21, 2017.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/Shrek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="323" data-original-width="220" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/Shrek.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Ah, <i>Shrek</i>.&nbsp; The Oscar-winning <i>Shrek</i>.&nbsp; Winner of the first Oscar for Best Animated Film.&nbsp; I still think <i>Monsters Inc</i> was robbed.&nbsp; <br /><br />As much as I enjoyed <i>Shrek</i>, I always had problems with it.&nbsp; Almost immediately, it was heralded as this clever, satirical take on fairy tales.&nbsp; And all I can say is no, it's not satirical.&nbsp; You have a main character who loathes many of the cliches and conventions of fairy tales, and goes around pointing them out and mocking them.&nbsp; That's not satire.&nbsp; That's sarcasm.&nbsp; That's self-referential, especially when we get near the end and we start getting the "true love is on the inside" message.&nbsp; <br /><br />And watching it again tonight, I can see that it's not so much sarcasm as it is a giant middle finger to Disney.&nbsp; Coming off the 1990s, and that period of animation known as the Disney Renaissance, it was ripe for spoofing.&nbsp; I'm sure we've all heard by now how our villainous Lord Farquaad is a caricature of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.&nbsp; And how the reason why Farquaad is really, really short is because Eisner is a really tall guy, and whenever he had disputes with Jeffrey Katzenberg -- the former Disney board member who eventually quit Disney and went off to found DreamWorks, the makers of <i>Shrek</i> -- Eisner would call Katzenberg a midget.&nbsp; In fact, several other commentators have pointed out that most of DreamWorks' early 2000s output in the wake of <i>Shrek</i> just simply tried too hard to be the anti-Disney.&nbsp; <br /><br />That being said, <i>Shrek </i>does have a long an interesting history of how it came to be.&nbsp; Loosely based on the 1990 children's book by William Steig.&nbsp; Steven Spielberg liked the book and bought it turn into a traditionally animated movie.&nbsp; Spielberg's dream cast at the time was Bill Murray as Shrek and Steve Martin as Donkey.&nbsp; Eventually, Spielberg let the rights lapse, and it was acquired by Katzenberg for the newly formed DreamWorks and their animation division.&nbsp; In the beginning, they wanted to do it kind of like Disney's <i>Dinosaur.&nbsp;&nbsp;</i>All of the backgrounds would be live-action photographs, and the animation done with motion capture.&nbsp; Now, in the mid-1990s, motion capture was very new and highly experimental.&nbsp; And when the test footage wasn't up to snuff, DreamWorks decided to go with computer animation, which was still new but, in the wake of <i>Toy Story</i>, a proven technology.&nbsp; <br /><br />And then they were thrown for a loop when they lost their lead.&nbsp; In one of those "What if?" casting scenarios, the original voice of Shrek was Chris Farley.&nbsp; But, Farley passed away before the film was completed.&nbsp; Reports vary as to how much Farley had voiced before his passing.&nbsp; Some say the entire film, some say he had only started.&nbsp; But the decision was made to re-cast it.&nbsp; Mike Myers got the call.&nbsp; Now, it's interesting here, because Mike Myers did it twice.&nbsp; Mike Myers did the voice of Shrek, but when the finished animation came back, Myers went to Katzenberg and said, "I want to redo it.&nbsp; Now that I've seen the finished animation and what you're going for, I've got a better take on the character."&nbsp; Katzenberg relented, and let Myers redo it.&nbsp; Katzenberg said that it increased the budget by $4 million for all the animation they had to redo, but Myers disputes that.&nbsp; <br /><br />I remember reading some reports at the time.&nbsp; Apparently, Myers original voice for Shrek was a lot more harsh...more like his Fat Bastard voice.&nbsp; But after seeing some of the finished film, he decided to soften it up a little.&nbsp; In an interview I read with Myers at the time,&nbsp;Myers said he actually based Shrek's voice on his mother's voice...the voice that would read him fairy tales when he was a kid.&nbsp; <br /><br />The finished film finally made it to theaters in May of 2001, and went on to become one of the biggest films of the year.&nbsp; Honestly, I loved it so much in 2001 that it holds one of the rare distinctions of being a movie I saw in the theatre twice.&nbsp; I&nbsp;saw it when it first came out in May, and then that fall when it was in the loonie theatre...back when loonie theatres were still a thing.&nbsp; Don't get me wrong, it did have some clever twists and jokes.&nbsp; Seeing it that second time, a friend of mine singled out the gag where Princess Fiona makes a bird explode with her singing voice, sees the three now-orphaned eggs in the bird's nest, and then, fade to the eggs being fried up over the campfire by Fiona for breakfast.&nbsp; Said my friend, "I <i>love</i><i>d </i>that.&nbsp; I thought for sure she was going to adopt the eggs and raise them, because shit like that <i>always happens</i>."<br /><br />Which is why <i>Shrek </i>kind of falls apart in the third act.&nbsp; We start falling back on what's widely been embraced as the animated film formula.&nbsp; There's a big misunderstanding, Shrek and Fiona part ways, only for the truth to be revealed and Shrek come charging back to the rescue.&nbsp; I remember reading an interview with the co-director, Andrew Adamson, at the time, who totally copped to it.&nbsp; He said something along the lines of, "We found we'd painted ourselves into a corner, and we wound up having to use the cliches we were mocking to bring our story to a satisfying end."&nbsp; I've watched a few other films that have fallen into that trap...I call it "The Shrek Conundrum."&nbsp; <br /><br />We also see the origins of DreamWorks' heavy reliance on pop culture reference humour.&nbsp; <i>Matrix</i> bullet time jokes, the Macarena, <i>All Star</i>...hell, these things were already dated by the time the film came out in 2001.&nbsp; <br /><br />I did like the soundtrack, though.&nbsp; I do own it, along with the spectacular score.&nbsp; Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell collaborated one last time, following their successful collaboration on the <i>Chicken Run</i> score.&nbsp; It's a score so memorable that the opening bars have become the DreamWorks Animation fanfare.&nbsp; <br /><br /><br /><br /><center> <site-embed id="183"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zEtYTEUOPWI" width="560"></iframe></site-embed> </center><br />But yeah.&nbsp; That's <i>Shrek</i>.&nbsp; Even though it hasn't really stood the test of time, it won the first Best Animated Film Oscar and turned DreamWorks Animation into the powerhouse it is today.&nbsp; Quite the legacyMark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-30584956712997115722017-12-23T00:30:00.000-07:002017-12-23T00:30:37.882-07:00The Science Behind PixarHey!&nbsp; So I had some time off during the end of November.&nbsp; I've blogged about pretty much everything I did that week except for one thing:&nbsp; going to see The Science Behind Pixar at the Telus World of Science.&nbsp; Well, now that I'm on Christmas vacation and have got nothing but time, let's sit down and blog about what I did a month ago!<br /><br />Telus World of Science has been knocking it out of the park over the past few years for travelling exhibitions.&nbsp; It all kind of kicked off about five years ago with <i>Star Wars Identities.&nbsp; </i>Then they had the <i>Harry Potter </i>one and the <i>Indiana Jones </i>one...I'm still kind of upset that I missed the Rubik's Cube one and the <i>Sherlock Holmes </i>one.&nbsp; Anyway, since I love Pixar, I knew I had to make it down for <i>The Science Behind Pixar, </i>which explains the process of making your favourite animated films these days.<br /><br />Firstly, let me say, I know that Telus World of Science has their "adults only" nights where you can check out these exhibits without kids being noisy kids.&nbsp; But let me just say what equally works well is taking a Monday off from work and going on Monday morning.&nbsp; I tell ya, I had may run of the place.&nbsp; I spent all morning in the exhibit, and, at its peak, there were probably only 8 of us in there.<br /><br />While I was expecting a lot of displays of concept art and maquettes and all the other physical products of making animation, there was actually very little of that.&nbsp; (Although, I can tell I've watched way too many DVD bonus features when I see the names of the artists who sketched that concept art, and recognize them.)&nbsp; Nope, the key to this exhibition was interactivity, as pretty much every display had an interactive component.&nbsp; They would walk you through a complex computer animation process like lighting, for example, and then you get to try it yourself.&nbsp; Of course, they take the process and simplify it from the hundreds of controls that computer animators have down to "pull this lever" or "push this button."<br /><br />And the plus side is I finally know what rendering is.&nbsp; They kind of gloss over that in the DVD bonus features.&nbsp; All I really knew was it was the most time-consuming part of the computer animation process, and it takes the most computing power.&nbsp; It's the final step, and as they explain, it's calculating exactly how much light each pixel gets.&nbsp; They put that all together, and boom!&nbsp; You have a computer animated movie.&nbsp; <br /><br />Anyway, messing around with iMovie on my iPhone, I made this little slide show of some of the pictures I took.&nbsp; Enjoy!<br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z4-hhZrfMVM" width="560"></iframe></center><br /><br />Didn't do much else at the Telus World of Science after that.&nbsp; I explored a little bit, but they've got several displays closed right now as they undergo a renovation and refurbishment.&nbsp; It wasn't like when I went five years ago for <i>Star Wars Identities</i>.&nbsp; Five years ago, it was the first time I'd been to Telus World of Science since I was a kid, and I dedicated the whole day to taking it all in.&nbsp; Never got around to writing my epic blog entry about that adventure five years ago.&nbsp; Like with the Science Behind Pixar, I took a Monday off work to take it all in.&nbsp; When I got back to work on Tuesday, I got the call that I was getting transferred to Westlock, so suddenly my days were consumed with moving.&nbsp;<br /><br />One of my favourite things from five years ago, though, was taking in a planetarium show.&nbsp; Even as a kid, I'd never done that at Telus World of Science.&nbsp; This being in the middle of the day, with a lot of kids in daycare on field trips, the one I took in was a <i>Sesame Street </i>one, featuring Big Bird, and Elmo, and some third muppet I didn't recognize.&nbsp; I googled it when I got home and saw he was from the Chinese version of <i>Sesame Street</i>.&nbsp; Anyway, it was for really young people, as Big Bird pointed out the North Star and the Big Dipper and stuff like that.&nbsp; It was fun.&nbsp;<br /><br />Afterwards, I spoke with the person who ran the show to ask a few questions.&nbsp; I asked whatever happened to that gigantic star projector they used to have, and she explained that it was still there, just below the stage, because it was so massive the building was pretty much built around it.&nbsp; She then fired up their digital projectors and took me though a 5 minute private show as she showed off their current technology.&nbsp; She ended with a sigh.&nbsp; "But all this stuff is 10 years old now, and starting to show its age.&nbsp; We really need an upgrade, but I'm not the one who makes those decisions."<br /><br />As part of the renovations going on at Telus World of Science right now, they are upgrading their planetarium, and when it's done, it'll be the most technologically advanced in Western Canada.&nbsp; I couldn't help but think of my guide five&nbsp; years ago and wonder if she's happy that she's now getting her upgrade.<br /><br />I did take in lunch at the Telus World of Science, thought.&nbsp; I blogged a long time ago that pretty much every museum in the world has a cafe and a gift shop, and I'm fascinated by them.&nbsp; Actually, the Telus World of Science restaurant also got a refurbishment in the past five years.&nbsp; Now they call it the Purple Pear, and they really beefed up their menu.&nbsp; Rather than the usual egg salad sandwiches you get at museum cafes, they've got some really substantial food.&nbsp; I treated myself to their pulled pork quesadillas, which were really quite good.&nbsp; I also paid the extra to get my drink in the collector's cup to take home.&nbsp; Fun fact:&nbsp; if you get your drink in the collector's cup at the Purple Pear, it's free refills for your entire day at Telus World of Science.&nbsp;<br /><br />Anyways, that was my day at the Telus World of Science.&nbsp; I highly recommend you check out the Science Behind Pixar.&nbsp; By the time this entry goes live, there'll literally be 2 weeks left, so sooner rather than later.&nbsp;Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-16618583894154516162017-12-22T00:30:00.000-07:002017-12-22T00:30:12.949-07:00Last Jedi ThoughtsWell, here I am, off on Christmas vacation, and what better way to start Christmas vacation than by seeing the latest <i>Star Wars </i>movie?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tdSz_8oBCAU/WfSfoScQPyI/AAAAAAAACNE/86z_ee4TBq4TRUOwJNpdBKViQTtpaQ77QCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/LastJedi-Poster2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Star Wars: The Last Jedi Poster" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="864" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tdSz_8oBCAU/WfSfoScQPyI/AAAAAAAACNE/86z_ee4TBq4TRUOwJNpdBKViQTtpaQ77QCPcBGAYYCw/s320/LastJedi-Poster2.jpg" title="Star Wars: The Last Jedi Poster" width="216" /></a></div><br />The prophecy in my Christmas card letter has come true in that I have seen it twice now.&nbsp; I saw it on Saturday in West Edmonton Mall.&nbsp; I <i>had </i>to see it in West Edmonton Mall.&nbsp; I've seen every <i>Star Wars </i>movie since <i>The Phantom Menace </i>at the Scotiabank Theatre (originally Silver City).&nbsp; Hell, if you want to go back in time to <i>before </i>the <i>Phantom Menace</i>, then I've seen every <i>Star Wars </i>movie since the Special Editions at West Edmonton Mall.&nbsp; I just have to see it at West Edmonton Mall!&nbsp; It's tradition!<br /><br />The second time, some old friends from college invited me down to see it at the big VIP Theatre on the south side...in that Windermere power centre.&nbsp; I'd been wanting to experience the VIP Theatre ever since it opened in Edmonton about five years ago.&nbsp; The lobby looks like an executive lounge at airport.&nbsp; The chairs are nice, big recliners.&nbsp; And they've got fold-out tray tables to hold your snacks.&nbsp; It was so nice!&nbsp; Kind of like the <i>Seinfeld </i>episode about first class...it'll be tough going back to coach after this.<br /><br />But it was made all the more sweeter by seeing it with old friends from college.&nbsp; Back in the day, we stood in line for about 8 hours at Camrose's Duggan Cinemas to be the first to see <i>The Phantom Menace</i>.&nbsp; As I've blogged before, it coincided pretty nicely with our graduation.&nbsp; Standing in that line was pretty much our grad party.&nbsp; It is kind of strange, though, catching up with old friends from college.&nbsp; They've all got kids and careers and mortgages and such.&nbsp; And me?&nbsp; I'm still doing what I did in college:&nbsp; spending all my free time screwing around at the radio station.&nbsp;<br /><br />Anyway, enough with the reminiscing and mid-life-crisising.&nbsp; How was <i>The Last Jedi</i>?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gnTfI3DyDe0/WPVheVOHH2I/AAAAAAAACD8/A5X6W9aULJw901WndI9bvGSVDwGuXaNYwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/lastjedi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Last Jedi Teaser Poster" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1081" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gnTfI3DyDe0/WPVheVOHH2I/AAAAAAAACD8/A5X6W9aULJw901WndI9bvGSVDwGuXaNYwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/lastjedi.jpg" title="The Last Jedi Teaser Poster" width="216" /></a></div><br />I freakin' loved it.&nbsp;<br /><br />As I've seen elsewhere online, reaction to this new <i>Star Wars</i>&nbsp;trilogy has been kind of mixed among the fans.&nbsp; They hated <i>The Force Awakens </i>for being too much like the original trilogy, and now they hate <i>The Last Jedi </i>for defying expectations and being too different.&nbsp; But much like the prequels back in the day, we have to accept that this is not our <i>Star Wars</i>, but a <i>Star Wars </i>for a new generation.&nbsp; Me?&nbsp; I like the new direction.&nbsp; It's nice seeing beloved characters like Luke Skywalker growing and evolving rather than doing the same thing they were 20 years ago.&nbsp; *cough*<br /><br />While our heroes managed to destroy Starkiller Base, the First Order was able to consolidate their power and are well on their way to conquering the galaxy.&nbsp; Now, that last remnants of the Resistance are on the run...quite literally.&nbsp; Their last fleet is just barely out of range of the First Order fleet, with the First Order trailing behind, taking potshots at them.&nbsp; Under the new leadership of Vice Admiral Holdo, our new heroes of Poe Dameron and Finn are upset that a more pro-active approach isn't being taken.&nbsp; So, with the assistance of a young Resistance tech named Rose, they set off on a rogue mission to save the fleet from the First Order<br /><br />Meanwhile, when last we left young Jedi Rey, she had tracked down Luke Skywalker on a distant planet, in the ruins of the first Jedi temple.&nbsp; But Luke is not as she expected.&nbsp; We find Luke Skywalker to be a broken man, wallowing in self-pity at how he failed his star pupil Kylo Ren, and how Kylo Ren turned to the Dark Side.&nbsp; It'll be up to Rey to pull Luke out of his funk, learn the skills she needs to become a Jedi, and see if Kylo Ren can be turned back from the Dark Side.&nbsp;<br /><br />And that's what makes the film so good.&nbsp; Not only do we see our classic characters like Luke and Leia and how they've grown, but there's also a lot of growing up to do for our new heroes.&nbsp; Poe learns that being a leader isn't always about taking the easy path.&nbsp; Finn learns how to embrace his role as an idol to young Rose.&nbsp; And Rey and Kylo Ren truly have the most interesting paths to walk, as they seem to be creating new Jedi and Sith orders, and still unsure of how to do it.&nbsp;<br /><br />But we do have a lot of the great <i>Star Wars </i>action that we love.&nbsp; There's some great lightsaber battles, some great space battles, and one moment that had half the theatre in that first screening go, "Oh, <i>fuck."&nbsp;&nbsp;</i><br /><i><br /></i>If I have one complaint, I think that maybe it has one ending too many.&nbsp; There are about three moments near the end where I felt, "OK, you can end it here," but it keeps going.&nbsp;<br /><br />Long story short:&nbsp; I loved <i>The Last Jedi</i>&nbsp;and its place in this new <i>Star Wars </i>trilogy.&nbsp; Defying expectations can be a good thing.&nbsp; 4 out of 4 nibs.&nbsp; <a href="http://chaosinabox.com/index.php/2017/12/18/movie-review-star-wars-the-last-jedi/" target="_blank">Full review on the website.</a>&nbsp;Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-33587625555143759982017-12-21T00:30:00.000-07:002017-12-21T00:30:46.183-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - Total Movie: April 2001Here we are once again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blog about one of the movies I own.&nbsp; This time, doing something a little different.&nbsp; It's an old promotional DVD called <i>Total Movie: April 2001</i>.&nbsp; This is in my notes at May 15, 2017.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y__gP_28Kqg/WjajgSBpTNI/AAAAAAAACOs/ERjb56n1fe0W8p5Cm1J7ZkjE0gZJPpetACLcBGAs/s1600/totalmovie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Total Movie: April 2001" border="0" data-original-height="1082" data-original-width="730" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y__gP_28Kqg/WjajgSBpTNI/AAAAAAAACOs/ERjb56n1fe0W8p5Cm1J7ZkjE0gZJPpetACLcBGAs/s400/totalmovie.jpg" title="Total Movie: April 2001" width="268" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Back in the early days of DVD, whenever I’d invited friends over to partake in a movie night, their eyes would usually turn to an unusual DVD called <i>Total Movie: April 2001</i>.&nbsp; They’d pull it off the shelf, take a look at it, nod with understanding, and then put it back.&nbsp; That DVD still sits on my shelf, and I’d long wanted to explore it for this column, knowing it would be a little more unusual that I usually do here.<br /><br /><i>Total Movie</i> launched in the fall of the year 2000 as an Americanization of the legendary British film magazine <i>Total Film</i>.&nbsp; But, <i>Total Movie</i> had its own unique gimmick.&nbsp; You know how computer magazines used to come with a CD-ROM full of demos?&nbsp; Well, thanks to the new technology of DVD, each issue of <i>Total Movie </i>came with a DVD, full of previews of upcoming DVDs, trailers for upcoming theatrical films, and some of the hottest viral videos going around the Internet.<br /><br />Yeah, this was the year 2000.&nbsp; Internet was still mostly dial-up, and streaming video wasn’t viable yet, but videos still got shared through file-sharing.&nbsp;&nbsp; Back in my final days of college, my computer science major buddies would show off these videos they’d just downloaded.&nbsp; Bored computer animators doing epic space battles between the starship <i>Enterprise</i> and Imperial Star Destroyers.&nbsp; Raunchy cartoons like <i>Tripping the Rift</i>.&nbsp; That’s also where I first saw the legendary <i>Star Wars</i> fan film <i>Troops</i>.&nbsp; In fact, that’s why the first issue of <i>Total Movie</i> made waves across the home theatre message boards I frequented back then.&nbsp; The first DVD in the first issue contains the only official DVD release of <i>Troops</i>.&nbsp; <br /><br />I finally got my first DVD player in January of 2001.&nbsp; A few weeks later, I snatched up the latest copy of <i>Total Movie </i>on my way home from work.&nbsp; I primarily got it for the free DVD, and not for the cover story on the upcoming movie version of <i>Josie and the Pussycats</i>.&nbsp; For this issue, the editors added an extra gimmick to the DVD.&nbsp; They said that they’d been getting lots of reader feedback, asking if they could somehow create a proper DVD case for the free DVD, rather than just the little paper envelope it came in.&nbsp; Since these magazines that came packaged in a clear plastic bag to help contain the free CD usually also contained a piece of paper listing what was on the CD, the <i>Total Movie</i> editors decided to print onto that a proper DVD insert and liner notes.&nbsp; All you had to do was provide your own empty DVD case.&nbsp; As soon as HMV started selling the empty cases, I clipped out that insert and gave <i>Total Movie: April 2001</i> an honoured place in my DVD library.<br /><br />Sadly, it was the only <i>Total Movie </i>DVD that wound up in my library.&nbsp; The April 2001 issue wound up being the last one.&nbsp; The gimmick of the free DVD made the magazine a little too expensive, and the sales figures just weren’t there.&nbsp; <i>Total Film</i> licensed the <i>Total Movie</i> name to a different publisher, and the magazine re-launched a year later.&nbsp; But the content wasn’t there, and the free DVD became a public domain movie that you had to send away for.&nbsp; <i>Total Movie 2.0</i> came and went just as fast as the original.&nbsp; <br /><br />But I still have my copy of <i>Total Movie: April 2001</i>, and I toss it in every once in a while, just to remember those exciting early days of DVD.&nbsp; Let’s take a look at it.<br /><br />There’s two short films on the DVD.&nbsp; The first is an animated film called <i>The Killer Bean 2</i>, which they proudly proclaim was #1 on iFilm.com.&nbsp; In this world of humanoid beans, a loud party is keeping our titular Killer Bean awake at night.&nbsp; When he calls to complain, and the party-goers just mock him, the Killer Bean grabs his guns and goes to settle the score.&nbsp; And the majority of the film is just one big gun fight.&nbsp; <i>The Matrix</i> was still fresh and new, so there’s lots of bullet time shots.&nbsp; It’s cute.<br /><br />The second one is my favourite of the two, <i>Me and the Big Guy</i>, which is a comedic spin on <i>1984</i>.&nbsp; In our brutal totalitarian regime, where Big Brother is watching you, our hero is actually quite friendly and chipper.&nbsp; He affectionately refers to the massive telescreen that monitors his every move and broadcasts an ever-watching picture of Big Brother as “the Big Guy,” and regards Big Brother as his wacky roommate.&nbsp; Eventually, the picture of Big Brother comes to life, just so Big Brother can tell our nameless protagonist just how freaking annoying he is, and that our protagonist should just cave under oppression already.&nbsp; It’s got a pretty clever twist ending, too.&nbsp; It must exist on YouTube at this point, I suggest you seek it out.<br /><br />I wonder if these guys ever went on to greater things.&nbsp; <i>The Killer Bean 2 </i>was created and animated by Jeffrey Lew, who went on to be an animator and do some of the CGI for the <i>Transformers</i> movies and <i>Tron Legacy.</i>&nbsp; Cool.&nbsp; <i>Me and the Big Guy</i> was written and directed by Matt Nix, who went on to create the TV shows <i>Burn Notice, The Good Guys,</i> and the upcoming <i>X-Men </i>TV series <i>The Gifted</i>.&nbsp; Double cool!<br /><br />Next up, we have the trailers.&nbsp; The big three on here are for three of the bigger films of 2001.&nbsp; First, there’s our first glimpse of Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in <i>Tomb Raider.</i>&nbsp; Man, I haven’t seen that since I saw it in the theatre in 2001.&nbsp; I remember thinking, “The best we can hope for is mid-range <i>Indiana Jones</i> rip-off,” and I remember coming out of the theatre going, “Yup, about what I expected.”&nbsp; The second is for the first <i>Shrek</i>, which I haven’t watched in a while.&nbsp; I remember enjoying the first one, but the sequels made me want to puke.&nbsp; I’ve been told the first one hasn’t aged well, so I’m curious.&nbsp; Maybe I’ll do that one next.&nbsp; And the third notable trailer is <i>Memento</i>, which is still high on the list of classics I haven’t seen.<br /><br />Then we get into the meat and potatoes:&nbsp; previews for upcoming DVDs.&nbsp; They’re mostly just the trailers, but some are kind enough to throw in a featurette or a deleted scene.&nbsp; The one that gave up the most on this was the film <i>Gladiator</i>.&nbsp; We’re treated to the trailer, a deleted scene, the menu screen animation, a featurette, and a preview of director Ridley Scott’s running commentary.&nbsp; <i>Gladiator</i> is another one I haven’t seen since I saw it in the theatre back in the year 2000.&nbsp; I wonder if they still boast that it’s the best-selling DVD of all-time.&nbsp; Given that statistic, I, too, am stunned that I don’t own it.&nbsp; <br /><br />But I do remember specifically picking up this issue of <i>Total Movie </i>because the DVD contained some of the bonus features for <i>Dogma</i>.&nbsp; There was a controversy around the <i>Dogma</i> DVD that wound up getting it pushed back a few months, so this free DVD was all we got for a while.&nbsp; Here, we have the trailer and the blooper reel, which is pretty cool.&nbsp; The other big DVD release being promoted by this DVD the 25th anniversary edition of <i>Rocky</i>, with the trailer and one of Sylvester Stallone’s retrospective interviews.&nbsp; <br /><br />They also offer up an original featurette called <i>Behind the Menus</i>, where they preview some of the interactive material on DVD-ROMs.&nbsp; A lot of DVDs boasted DVD-ROM material, where you could pop the DVD into your computer, and then watch the movie synchronized with the screenplay or the storyboards and things of that nature.&nbsp; <br /><br />And that concludes my afternoon of browsing my old copy of the <i>Total Movie: April 2001</i> promotional DVD.&nbsp; <i>Total Movie</i> was a concept just a little ahead of its time, as I don’t think DVD was quite mainstream enough for a free DVD full of trailers to be popular.&nbsp; And now, it’s an idea that’s behind the times, as all that stuff – trailers, deleted scenes, featurettes – we can all grab off YouTube if we’re craving a preview.&nbsp; But in those early days of DVD, it was something to get the young film aficionado excited.&nbsp; <br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-20078687002443078072017-12-18T00:30:00.000-07:002017-12-18T00:30:18.298-07:00News from Markworld: December 2018As always, I am blogging my annual Christmas card letter, for those whose addresses I may have lost, or for long forgotten friends who may be googling me late one night, wondering what ever happened to me.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-STBBbw6Qevc/UNOWYQ8BuXI/AAAAAAAABMU/N-gw5xmlV8ou7M52d2qx23LN4YHZHBBzgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/markworld.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="News from Markworld: The Chaos in a Box Newsletter" border="0" data-original-height="145" data-original-width="301" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-STBBbw6Qevc/UNOWYQ8BuXI/AAAAAAAABMU/N-gw5xmlV8ou7M52d2qx23LN4YHZHBBzgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/markworld.gif" title="News from Markworld: The Chaos in a Box Newsletter" /></a></div><br /><br />Hello, there!&nbsp; Once again, it’s me, Mark Cappis, sending you a Christmas form letter to tell you what’s up with me!&nbsp;<br /><br />So much has happened since I last saw you!&nbsp; I lost my hammer, like, yesterday, so that’s still pretty fresh.&nbsp; And then I went on a journey of self-discovery, where I met you.&nbsp; No, wait.&nbsp; That’s from <i>Thor: Ragnarok</i>.&nbsp; Great movie, if you haven’t seen it yet.<br /><br />I forgot to write up one of these letters last year, and some were wondering why.&nbsp; Well, last year, at around this time, I was really thrown for a loop.&nbsp; There was a massive corporate restructuring, and my position at 97.9 the Range as afternoon host and music director was eliminated.&nbsp; But, the Company still had a place for me.&nbsp; Rising from the ashes of the Range was Real Country 97.9, and they offered me the job of morning show co-host and news reporter.&nbsp; So, last year at this time, and for a good chunk of 2017, I was re-adjusting to getting up at 4AM to do the morning show, and spending late nights covering various events around Westlock and Barrhead.&nbsp; On top of that, I managed to retain several of my administrative duties that came with the old music director gig.&nbsp; It makes for long days a lot of the time.&nbsp; But, it’s been a journey of self-discovery.&nbsp; Guess I’m not too different from Thor after all.<br /><br />But, as I’ve said in letters past, the older I get, the more I find that <i>WKRP</i>’s old description of the radio announcer lifestyle is pretty accurate:&nbsp; pushing 40 and still living like a college kid.&nbsp; Although, I’m not pushing 40 anymore.&nbsp; I actually am 40, having hit that milestone this past July.&nbsp; Now having reached that age, I’m wondering if still living like a college kid is actually worth it.&nbsp; But hey, the journey of self-discovery is never-ending.&nbsp; Or, this is what a midlife crisis feels like.<br /><br />Anyway, best to wrap this up.&nbsp; I’ve got my tickets to the new <i>Star Wars</i> movie, and by the time you read this, I’ll probably have seen it three times.&nbsp; Yeah, I know I used that joke two years ago with <i>The Force Awakens</i> right around the corner, but remember what they say in radio:&nbsp; it’s safe to re-use your material after 3 hours, because you have enough of a new audience by then.&nbsp; <br />Merry Christmas, and all the best in 2018!<br /><br /><br />Mark Cappis<br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-16882414244516003352017-12-14T00:30:00.000-07:002017-12-14T00:31:06.999-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - Tron: LegacyHere we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I nerd out about one of the movies I own.&nbsp; This one is kind of unique, as almost 7 years ago, this movie was about the only thing I could talk about.&nbsp; It's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron:_Legacy" target="_blank"><i>Tron: Legacy</i></a>.&nbsp; This is in my notes at May 15, 2017.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jb0TrnJKadE/TL7kNmFiQ3I/AAAAAAAAAeE/WZblKohY7TMwVrduAz3RsEEhEYSTMr96wCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/tlpoyoff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tron Legacy Poster" border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="439" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jb0TrnJKadE/TL7kNmFiQ3I/AAAAAAAAAeE/WZblKohY7TMwVrduAz3RsEEhEYSTMr96wCPcBGAYYCw/s400/tlpoyoff.jpg" title="Tron Legacy Poster" width="265" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />When I first started looking online for movie news, one of the very first things I looked for was news on a <i>Tron</i> sequel.&nbsp; The first rumour I read was that a fully computer-animated remake was going to be Pixar’s second film after <i>Toy Story.</i>&nbsp; The 20th anniversary special edition DVD released in 2002 opened with a teaser for something called <i>Tron: Killer App</i>, and the bonus features feature the original director Steven Lisberger sharing concept art for <i>Tron 2.0</i>.&nbsp; That all wound up being the video game <i>Tron 2.0</i> which came out in 2003.&nbsp; And it looked like that’s all we were going to get for a Tron sequel.<br /><br />Until the San Diego ComicCon in 2008.&nbsp; After the Disney panel, and before the next one, the fabled Hall H went dark, and a teaser was shown.<br /><br /><center> <site-embed id="181"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iFxMhlNC3ss" width="560"></iframe></site-embed></center><br />(Some differences between that, and what was originally shown at ComiCon.&nbsp; Firstly, there was no Disney logo at the beginning.&nbsp; It didn’t give a release date.&nbsp; And it gave the title as “TR2N”.)<br /><br />The crowd went wild.&nbsp; We were then told that it was test footage, put together by director Joseph Kosinski to show off his vision, and what he’d like to do for a <i>Tron</i> sequel.&nbsp; Based on how that footage went viral, Disney gave the greenlight to the long-awaited <i>Tron</i> sequel, with the title <i>Tron: Legacy.</i>&nbsp; <br /><br />Man, I was nuts for <i>Tron Legacy </i>when it started coming along in 2010.&nbsp; It was one of the first times I was caught up in the viral marketing.&nbsp; I’ve still got my ENCOM lanyard with ENCOM security badge that you can use to get to a viral website.&nbsp; I got promotional postcards from ENCOM, advertising their upcoming video games.&nbsp; I’ve still got an exclusive <i>Tron Legacy</i> poster rolled up and in the back of my closet, which I hope to get professionally framed one day.&nbsp; <br /><br />But perhaps my greatest achievement shows that you never know what’ll happen unless you ask.&nbsp; Inspired by some co-workers who used their position to get press credentials to go to sporting events, I decided to use my position to get press credentials to go to the advance screening.&nbsp; I sent an e-mail to Disney’s Canadian press office in Toronto, pleaded my case, and a few months later, got my invite to the advance screening of <i>Tron Legacy</i>.&nbsp; <br /><br />The film opens in 1989.&nbsp; Kevin Flynn has turned ENCOM into one of the foremost computer companies of the 1980s.&nbsp; The insights given to him while inside the computer have made him a visionary along the lines of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.&nbsp; And then, one night, he mysteriously disappeared, making an orphan of his young son Sam.&nbsp; (Yeah, Flynn’s wife is dead, because Disney.)<br /><br />We flash forward to the present day.&nbsp; ENCOM is about to launch the latest version of its OS, and the CEO praises the design lead and the rising star of the programming department...Dillinger Jr, played by Cillian Murphy in a gratuitous cameo.&nbsp; (No doubt setting up the sequel that never happened.)&nbsp; Board member Alan Bradley is sickened at the greed on display.&nbsp; But then...a young hacker breaks into the company, swipes the source code to the new OS, and posts it for free online.&nbsp; The hacker is revealed to be Sam Flynn, majority shareholder and therefore the true owner of ENCOM.&nbsp; While he’s not ready to take an active role in the company, Sam feels that occasional acts of defiance like this are the best way to keep his father’s legacy alive.&nbsp; <br /><br />Once he’s bailed out of jail and returns home, Sam gets a visit from Alan, once again encouraging him to give up this hacktivist life and take control of the company.&nbsp; But Sam chooses not to, as he’s still got some daddy issues.&nbsp; And then Alan pulls a very old pager out of his pocket.&nbsp; Said that Flynn once told him to sleep with it, and he still does for old times sake.&nbsp; It went off for the first time in 20 years, with the number coming from Flynn’s old arcade.&nbsp; Alan encourages Sam to go check it out, feeling that it’s a mission more appropriate to Sam.<br /><br />Sam swings by Flynn’s, and I gotta admit, the filmmakers did a damn fine job recreating the set from the original film.&nbsp; Sam turns on the power, and we hear a few dozen classic arcade games come to life.&nbsp; Bit of a deep cut Easter egg in this scene.&nbsp; The song that the old jukebox starts blaring is <i>Separate Ways</i> by Journey.&nbsp; The B-side to <i>Separate Ways</i> was <i>Only Solutions</i>...Journey’s theme song for <i>Tron</i>.&nbsp; <br /><br />While poking around, Sam soon finds a hidden door, leading to a hidden lab in the basement.&nbsp; There, we see some familiar compute equipment from the original film...and a familiar looking laser.&nbsp; Sa notices the computer has been running for 20 years.&nbsp; He starts figuring out what’s running, and before you know it, the laser fires up, and Sam finds himself transported into another world.<br /><br />Sam recognizes it as the Grid, the home of Tron.&nbsp; It was always dismissed as the backstory that Flynn wrote for his video games, but Sam quickly comes to the realization that it was all real.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sam is immediately picked up by the shock troops, taken over to processing, where four ladies strip him naked and give him his glowy-stripes outfit, given his identity disc, and sent out to play in the games.&nbsp; <br /><br />Right away, we get to our deadly discs tournament, and things are all extreme for the new millennium.&nbsp; Now, the arenas randomly change gravity and flip around, just as the our combatants do similar parkour moves jumping off the walls to hurl their discs.&nbsp; I will admit, seeing this in 3D, this was definitely worth the price of admission.&nbsp; Sam advances through the rankings, and he is soon face to face with Rinzler, the most lethal of the digital warriors.&nbsp; Rinzler gets the upper hand, he goes in for the killing blow, and notices something.&nbsp; Sam doesn’t shatter into a million pixels when he’s injured...he’s bleeding.&nbsp; Rinzler outs Sam as a user.&nbsp; Our villain, who’s been watching everything from his private box, demands Sam be brought to him.<br /><br />Sam is brought before our villain.&nbsp; Our villain unmasks to reveal himself to be...Flynn, still looking very much like he did in the 1980s (i.e. in our prologue).&nbsp; Sam is elated to see his father again, but soon figures out that this is not his father...this is Clu, the computer-generated duplicate of his father that his father created.&nbsp; Sam begins demanding to know where Flynn is, but Clu sends Sam back to the games.&nbsp; <br /><br />Light cycle time!&nbsp; And oh man, have the lightcycles improved with modern technology.&nbsp; No more moving in straight lines and making 90 degree turns.&nbsp; They now look and move like real motorcycles.&nbsp; Everything has a much more shimmery, translucent plastic look to it.&nbsp; It just looks great.&nbsp; Clu himself joins the games this time, and easily dispatches everyone until it’s just Clu and Sam.&nbsp; When it looks like Sam is about to bite it, a Jeep enters the field and rescues Sam.&nbsp; They head for the hills, and the Sam’s rescuer reveals herself to be Quorra.<br />&nbsp; <br />Let’s just take a moment to talk about how freaking amazing Olivia Wilde is as Quorra.&nbsp; Yeah, she’s the badass warrior woman, but for a different spin, Wilde brings this childlike innocence to her, and Quorra exhibits this wonder at the feats she’s able to do.&nbsp; It makes for such a wonderful blend, and Wilde pulls it off spectacularly.&nbsp; I just love this character.&nbsp; <br /><br />Quorra takes Sam to her hideaway off the Grid, and there we meet Flynn...the real Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges as he looks in the present day.&nbsp; After a tearful reunion, they sit down to dinner.&nbsp; Flynn expresses some mild disappointment that Sam hasn’t yet fulfilled his potential, and Flynn finally gets around to giving us the backstory.&nbsp;&nbsp; Turns out Flynn made frequent returns to the digital world, and that’s what led to the creation of the Grid.&nbsp; Flynn decided to build the perfect computer system from the inside out.&nbsp; To help him out, he imported Tron, and created Clu.&nbsp; And for a time, things were good.&nbsp; But then, a miracle.&nbsp; New life appeared.&nbsp; A completely digital life-form...isomorphic algorithms, or Isos for short.&nbsp; They asked if they could make the Grid their home.&nbsp; Flynn said yes.&nbsp; <br /><br />This angered Clu.&nbsp; Clu was created to build the perfect computer system, and he felt that the Isos were an anomaly that must be rectified.&nbsp; Eventually, Clu led a revolt against Flynn, and a war broke out.&nbsp; Tron gave his life defending Flynn in the first assault.&nbsp; Because of Clu’s opinion of the Isos, the war quickly became genocidal, and all but one Iso – Quorra – remained.&nbsp; With the war going on, the portal to the real world closed up, trapping Flynn inside.&nbsp; With Clu in control and Flynn defeated, Flynn went into exile, and has been hiding out, protecting Quorra, ever since.&nbsp; <br /><br />Why didn’t Flynn just delete Clu, asks Sam.&nbsp; Turns out that, because Flynn created Clu inside the Grid, that old line about “a piece of every programmer resides in their programs” is quite literal, and if Flynn deleted Clu, it might kill Flynn.&nbsp; So now that Sam’s in the Grid, that means the portal is re-open, so Sam proposes they make a run for it and get out while the gettin’s good, but Flynn refuses.&nbsp; Flynn deduces that it was Clu who sent that initial page, and all of this has been a ploy to flush out Flynn.&nbsp; Clu is up to something, and Flynn wants to no part of it.&nbsp; Flynn quotes another classic film about computers from the 1980s, “The only way to win is not to play.”&nbsp; <br /><br />With Flynn wanting to continue his plan of inaction, a frustrated Sam and Quorra plot.&nbsp; Back during the war, there was a man, Zeus, who would smuggle the Isos to safety.&nbsp; Maybe Zeus can be found, and help them once again to smuggle them all to the portal.&nbsp; Sam heads back to the Grid to track down Zeus.&nbsp; Dismayed, Flynn decides to get off his butt and go after Sam.&nbsp; <br /><br />Back in the Grid, Sam runs into Gem, one of the women who stripped him naked, gave him his glowy suit and his identity disc, and sent him into the games.&nbsp; Gem knows of a man who knows Zeus, and takes Sam to the End of Line Club to meet its proprietor, Castor.&nbsp; I just feel like pointing out Gem because she’s the only other woman in the film.&nbsp; Well, there are the other three who help Gem strip Sam naked, but Gem is the only one with lines.&nbsp; Seriously.&nbsp; Quorra and Gem, the only two ladies in this film.&nbsp; <br /><br />We enter the End of Line Club, and it’s a cameo-pa-looza.&nbsp; The film’s composers, Daft Punk, make a cameo as the deejays.&nbsp; The bartender is original <i>Tron</i> director Steven Lisberger.&nbsp; I read that, somewhere in the Disney vault, there’s a deleted scene where Castor points out Lisberger.<br /><br />(Castor gives the bartender a respectful nod.&nbsp; The bartender returns said nod.)<br /><br />Sam:&nbsp; Who’s that?<br /><br />Castor:&nbsp; Why, he’s the reason why we’re all here.&nbsp; <br /><br />And Castor is portrayed by Michael Sheen.&nbsp; While everyone else is being rather stoic, Sheen just takes a big ol’ bite of the scenery and begins chewing.&nbsp; Castor is a very flamboyant guy.&nbsp; It quite stands out.&nbsp; But anyway, Castor reveals that he’s Zeus, and at his very core, he’s a profiteer, and there’s more money in helping out Clu.&nbsp; So, he’s ratted them out to Clu, and Clu’s shock troops soon barge in and bust up the place.&nbsp; Flynn and Quorra show up to save Sam, but not before Castor manages to swipe Flynn’s identity disc.<br /><br />Once they make their escape from the End of Line Club, Flynn finally decides to do things Sam’s way, and they begin their mad dash for the portal.&nbsp; They do so on a solar sailer, mimicking the first film.&nbsp; Since they have nothing to do now but the ride of beam light, they sit and chat.&nbsp; Sam and Flynn finally have a proper reconciliation and come to an understanding.&nbsp; Sam and Quorra start falling in love as Sam shares stories of the real world.&nbsp; I kinda like it.&nbsp; Things become so action-oriented, I like it when things slow down and we get a chance to get to know our characters.&nbsp; <br /><br />They arrive at some stop about two-thirds of the way to the portal, and they finally discover Clu’s plan.&nbsp; As Flynn is a user, his identity disc contains the key to traversing between the two worlds.&nbsp; And as Clu was made with a piece of Flynn, Clu might be able to enter the real world as well.&nbsp; So, Clu has been re-purposing the programs of the Grid into an army, and is getting ready to invade the real world and bring his vision of a perfect system to the masses.&nbsp; Action scene action scene action scene.&nbsp; Flynn gets his identity disc back and discovers that Rinzler is, in fact, a re-purposed Tron.&nbsp; Our heroes swipe a jet and continue their mad dash to the portal, with Clu and Rinzler in hot pursuit.&nbsp; Encountering his old friend Flynn is enough for Rinzler/Tron to remember his original programming, and take out Clu’s jet, buying our heroes more time.<br /><br />And I’ve got to say, that was my biggest disappointment with <i>Tron Legacy</i>:&nbsp; how they handled the character of Tron.&nbsp; It would have been nice if he had an actual character arc and been an actual character, instead of being a surprise henchman and remembering his true self just long enough to deliver his catchphrase.&nbsp; I mean, for a movie called <i>Tron</i>, it didn’t have a lot of Tron.<br />&nbsp; <br />Our heroes make it to the portal, but surprise!&nbsp; Clu beat them and is waiting for them.&nbsp; We have one last throwdown with Clu.&nbsp; Sam and Quorra make it to the portal.&nbsp; Flynn gave Quorra his identity disc, so she can escape with Sam into the real world.&nbsp; Flynn deletes Clu, sacrificing himself so Sam and Quorra can escape.&nbsp; <br /><br />Back in the real world, as a commentary on how far computers have come, Sam downloads the Grid onto a flash drive and puts it around his neck.&nbsp; Sam runs into Alan in the arcade.&nbsp; Thanks to his experiences and his reconciliation with his father, Sam tells Alan that he’s now ready to take an active role in ENCOM and more properly honour his father’s legacy.&nbsp; Outside, Sam and Quorra hop onto Sam’s motorcycle, roar across the Lions Gate Bridge, and watch the sun rise over Vancouver.<br /><br />Seriously.&nbsp; I geek out a little bit when they make zero effort to hide the fact it’s Vancouver.&nbsp; <br /><br />And that’s <i>Tron Legacy</i>.&nbsp; I love it.&nbsp; And I have the same problems with it that I had with the original film.&nbsp; They introduce some great sci-fi concepts (the Isos) but then do very little to explore those concepts.&nbsp; That being said, I love that they finally explore some of the concepts introduced in the original (the identity discs, users having godlike powers).&nbsp; I heard one critic describe the <i>Tron</i> universe as a being a great concept in search of a great story, and I can really get behind that.<br /><br />Sometimes they do strain a little too hard to make callbacks to the original. &nbsp;I&nbsp;mean, I get things like lightcycles and the solar sailer, as that's been established as part of this universe.&nbsp; But I'm talking about things like this.&nbsp; In the original, when Flynn racks up the high score on <i>Space Paranoids</i>, he turns to the adoring crowd and says, "Remember...it's all in the wrists!"&nbsp; In <i>Tron Legacy</i>, when they hijack the mini-jet to finish their spring to the portal.&nbsp; Quorra gets behind the pilot's stick.&nbsp; Flynn puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder and says, "Remember...it's all in the wrists."&nbsp; Seems a little forced.&nbsp; <br /><br />The performances are mostly great.&nbsp; As I said, Michael Sheen’s Castor goes a little off the rails, and sometimes, Flynn becomes a little too much like the Dude for my tastes, but other than that, it’s good.&nbsp; Special effects are good.&nbsp; Digitally de-aging Bridges so he can play Clu is amazing.&nbsp; Some have said that Clu looks a little too CGI, but since he’s supposed to be a computer program, it kind of works.&nbsp; This is where Disney kind of first started their digital de-aging that has now become a signature opening to every Marvel film.&nbsp; <br /><br />And the music.&nbsp; The score is just amazing.&nbsp; I know at first it seemed gimmicky to have Daft Punk do the music.&nbsp; No doubt they were just thinking, “This is a movie that takes place inside a computer.&nbsp; Who does computerized music these days?”&nbsp; But Daft Punk knocked it out of the park.&nbsp; Why Hollywood isn’t asking these guys to do more movies is a mystery.<br /><br /><center> <site-embed id="182"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rDxbK7IcaXA" width="560"></iframe> </site-embed></center><br />I hope Disney does get around to doing a third one.&nbsp; It was briefly greenlit a few years ago, only to be cancelled a few months later.&nbsp; I like the tweet Olivia Wilde sent out after its cancellation.&nbsp; It was along the lines of, “I hate to disappoint the fans, but I’m grateful I don’t have to eat nothing but kale dust for six months to fit into that costume again.”&nbsp; I read an interview with the director Joseph Kosinski not too long ago about the cancellation of the third.&nbsp; As he pointed out, it was about halfway through production when Disney bought Marvel.&nbsp; And then they bought <i>Star Wars</i>.&nbsp; So since <i>Tron Legacy </i>was not as big a hit as those have been, Disney’s just made it a low priority.&nbsp; <br /><br />I mean, hey.&nbsp; It took 28 years to get the first sequel, so maybe all it takes is patience.&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-87136998351058350322017-12-07T00:30:00.000-07:002017-12-07T00:30:06.197-07:00Fishing in the Discount Bin - TronHere we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, watching a movie I own and blogging about it.&nbsp; This time out, we take a look at Disney's 1982 classic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron" target="_blank"><i>Tron</i></a>.&nbsp; This is in my notes at May 15, 2017.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/Tron_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="300" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/Tron_poster.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />As I said not too long ago, the thing with re-arranging my Blu-Ray shelves to accommodate for a new unit has caused me to grab some old movies off the shelf and go, “Hey.&nbsp; It’s been a long time since I’ve watched this.”&nbsp; When I grabbed <i>Tron</i>, I thought, “Dude, I’ve wanted to do Tron for Fishing in the Discount Bin forever.”&nbsp; <br /><br />As I’m pretty sure I’ve blogged before, the late-70s/early-80s was a strange time for Disney.&nbsp; When Walt passed away in the late 1960s, the studio was left without a guiding vision.&nbsp; By the mid-70s, they’d run out of the projects that Walt was developing before he died.&nbsp; So they were left floundering a little bit.&nbsp; And while they were floundering, they started...experimenting.&nbsp; This was also when <i>Star Wars</i> was making major mint at the box office, so everyone wanted to get in on the sci-fi trend.<br /><br />Enter an enterprising young animator named Steven Lisberger.&nbsp; Lisberger had a thing for a technique called backlight animation.&nbsp; It’s widely used in animation to create glowing effects.&nbsp; Lisberger had a dream to make a film using nothing but backlight animation.&nbsp; Since this was also the era when video games were starting to catch on, and arcades were popping up in malls across the world, he figured that backlight animation would be the perfect medium to tell a story about the world inside video games.&nbsp; He pitched the idea to Disney, as they were the big name in animation, and the rest is history.&nbsp; Backlight animation is seen in the finished film, as that’s how they added the glowing energy stripes on everyone’s bodies.<br /><br /><i>Tron</i> hit theatres in 1982, and it’s one of those movies that’s just part of the background noise of my childhood.&nbsp; I mean, the design of the film was so striking.&nbsp; You saw those images, and they were burned into your brain.&nbsp; Hell, I think the first prize I ever got out of a cereal box was a <i>Tron</i> disc...just a mini-frisbee.&nbsp; But still, that was enough to spend an occasional summer afternoon, throwing around a Frisbee, pretending I was Tron.&nbsp; <br /><br />I finally saw the film for the first time in the second grade.&nbsp; My principal at the time, Mr. Stelter, had a tradition.&nbsp; At the start of the school&nbsp; year, he would bring the entire school into the gym and treat them to a screening of his favourite film,<i> The Apple Dumpling Gang</i>.&nbsp; But in the second grade, he stood before the school and said that we would not be watching <i>The Apple Dumpling Gang</i> that year, as he couldn’t get it.&nbsp; Instead, we’d be watching another Disney classic, <i>Tron</i>.&nbsp; <br /><br />Pretty sure I never watched it again until I picked up the super-special edition DVD in 2002.&nbsp; <br /><br />The film opens with our brief glimpse into the world of a video game, where we watch a guy playing an arcade game.&nbsp; We zoom into the screen, and see the two glowing lines on the video screen are in fact high-tech motorcycles, and the lines behind them are walls they’re creating.&nbsp; It’s a great way to introduce us to this world.&nbsp; We also meet one of our main villains, Zark, who’s been piloting one of the motorcycles.&nbsp; <br /><br />Back in the real world, we meet our hero, Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges.&nbsp; We see him trying to hack into some remote computer system.&nbsp; Inside the computer, his hacking attempts take the form of a computer program named Clu who’s piloting a tank.&nbsp; However, Zark captures Clu, thus cutting off Flynn’s hacking attempt.&nbsp; Clu is interrogated by Zark, and Zark’s commander, our main villain, the Master Control Program, or MCP for short.&nbsp; When Clu refuses to talk, he’s deleted (killed), and the MCP demands to speak to his user, Dillinger.&nbsp; <br />In the real world, Dillinger is high-level management at a computer company called ENCOM.&nbsp; The MCP is his magnum opus, which runs the entire company’s computer system.&nbsp; This being the “computers = magic” 1980s, the MCP is a fully sentient AI.&nbsp; Turns out, Dillinger got where he is by thievery, and one of the MCP’s main functions is to hack into rival computer companies and steal their programs.&nbsp; If it’s a good program, the MCP assimilates it into its own programming.&nbsp; Turns out Flynn’s hacking threatens to expose Dillinger and MCP’s machinations, so they beef up security access on the network.&nbsp; <br /><br />But this increased security access freezes out programmer Alan Bradley.&nbsp; He’s developing a security program called Tron that would monitor the MCP’s communication with the outside world.&nbsp; Turns out this was also part of the MCP’s plans, as inside the computer, Tron is starting to become quite the threat.&nbsp; Frustrated at this, Alan goes downstairs to chat with his girlfriend Laura.&nbsp; She works in the R&amp;D department, and her current project is a high-powered laser to be used for teleportation.&nbsp; Because, you know, I’m sure every computer company is working on one of those.&nbsp; Google Transporter, coming in 2055.&nbsp; Anyway, as Alan and Laura talk about all the shit going on in the company ever since Dillinger took charge, they realize that their old pal Kevin Flynn had the security clearance that’s now been frozen out of the system.&nbsp; They figure out that Flynn is up to something and go have a chat with him.&nbsp; <br /><br />They find Flynn on the other side of town running a video arcade, racking up the high score on the hottest arcade game in the land, <i>Space Paranoids</i>.&nbsp; Flynn actually lives above the arcade, so they go to his apartment/office to talk.&nbsp; As it turns out, Flynn was one of ENCOM’s most gifted programmers, but he was fired under mysterious circumstances.&nbsp; Flynn finally tells his two friends what went down.&nbsp; Flynn started heading back to work after-hours to work on some personal projects...video games, mostly.&nbsp; He was getting ready to take his new video games and strike off on his own, when he came into work one day, fired up his computer, and found all his work was gone.&nbsp;&nbsp; Three months later, Dillinger pitches five new arcade games to the board...all five were the ones that Flynn was developing, including <i>Space Paranoids</i>.&nbsp; When Flynn confronted Dillinger about this, Flynn was fired.&nbsp; So yes, Flynn has been hacking into ENCOM’s systems, because he knows that buried somewhere deep on a file server, is the evidence of his true authorship of <i>Space Paranoids</i>.&nbsp; <br /><br />It doesn’t take Alan very long to figure out that Dillinger must have gotten where he is because he’s using the MCP to swipe other programs and pass them off as his own.&nbsp; If Alan could get Tron back online, that would shut down the MCP, help Flynn get his evidence, and end the reign of Dillinger.&nbsp; As Flynn would have better luck with a direct terminal rather than dialing in remotely, Laura proposes they sneak Flynn into the building, and set him up at the terminal in her research lab.&nbsp; United by their common enemy, they go charging into ENCOM.&nbsp; <br /><br />I’ve got take a minute here to talk about the relationship between Flynn, Alan, and Laura.&nbsp; Alan is with Laura, but it’s made clear pretty early on that Flynn and Laura are exes who have successfully made it to “just friends.”&nbsp; They still playfully flirt with each other, much to Alan’s annoyance.&nbsp; But there is one moment where it appears that Alan lets his guard down a bit, and shows that he understands they’re just friends and he’s just playing along.&nbsp; <br /><br />Flynn:&nbsp; Tell me, does she still leave her clothes all over the bedroom floor?<br /><br />Laura:&nbsp; Flynn...<br /><br />Alan:&nbsp; Yup.<br /><br />Laura:&nbsp; ALAN!&nbsp; <br /><br />I dunno.&nbsp; Just that little exchange always made me think that Alan is secure in his knowledge that he’s won Laura’s heart, and he only feigns jealousy because it amuses Laura.&nbsp; And that, deep down, they’re all friends.<br /><br />Flynn gets to work at Laura’s terminal, and the big gigantic teleporting laser is pointing straight at it for some reason.&nbsp; The MCP and Flynn go head-to-head, but Flynn quickly gets the upper hand.&nbsp; Needing to level the playing field, the MCP fires up the laser and beams Flynn into the computer.&nbsp; And now we get to the good stuff.&nbsp; <br /><br />Flynn materializes into the glowing world of computers, himself now adorned with the glowing stripes that everyone one wears.&nbsp; Computer programs are people, and the MCP is the brutal dictator of all.&nbsp; The MCP’s stormtroopers haul Flynn off to the Gaming Grid, our gladiatorial arena where programs that are of no use are made to fight to the death.&nbsp; The MCP hopes that this will eliminate Flynn once and for all, however Zark is leery.&nbsp; After all, the users are like gods to programs.&nbsp; And Flynn is a user.&nbsp; Zark has never gone up against a god before.&nbsp; <br />However, Flynn soon proves to be just as adept as playing video games from the inside as he is from the out.&nbsp; And in the Gaming Grid, he soon encounters the most skilled of the warriors, the one fighting for freedom, the one who still maintains faith in the users...Tron.&nbsp; Flynn identifies Tron as Alan, to which Tron snaps, “How do you know the name of my user?” and Flynn quickly comes up with a story about how he was sent in by Alan to assist Tron.&nbsp; Not quite the truth, but true enough.<br /><br />Oh, and there is a line to explain why programs look like their programmers.&nbsp; One of the minor characters, one of the founders of the company, tells Dillinger that “There’s a piece of the programmer in every program they write.”&nbsp; So, there ya go.&nbsp; <br /><br />Flynn, Tron, and the red shirt are soon sent to the lightcycle game to up against Zark and his two flunkies.&nbsp; And we get the legendary lightcycle chase, made with the finest computer animation that 1982 had to offer.&nbsp; Man, watching this, I’m always amazed at how far we’ve come when it comes to computer animation.&nbsp; Fun trivia fact:&nbsp; back in 1982, <i>Tron</i> was disqualified from the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.&nbsp; The reason?&nbsp; The makers had cheated by using computer animation.&nbsp; What was originally a cheat is now how everything is done.&nbsp; <br /><br />A damaged lightcycle blows a hole in the wall of the arena, so Flynn, Tron, and cannon fodder make their break for freedom.&nbsp; They hideout in this really cool cave with a spring, which is pure electricity, and it recharges them.&nbsp; Our heroes formulate their plan.&nbsp; They need to get Tron to the nearest I/O Tower – where programs commune with their users – so Tron can get the data he needs from Alan to defeat the MCP.&nbsp; Our heroes set out, but Zark’s forces find them.&nbsp; Tron and Flynn are separated in the battle, and good-bye, expendable, we hardly knew ye.&nbsp; <br /><br />Tron continues on to the city, where he reconnects with his girlfriend Yori, the program version of Laura.&nbsp; Together, and with Zark’s forces on their tail, they head to the I/O Tower where Tron communes with Alan and gets the data he needs to take down the MCP.&nbsp; Meanwhile, being a user, Flynn starts discovering he’s got some godlike powers, when he reconstitutes a Recognizer (the aircraft in Zark’s fleet) out of a debris field, and takes down one of Zark’s troops and takes on his appearance in a variation on the old “take out a bad guy and steal his uniform” ploy.&nbsp; <br /><br />With the info in hand, Tron and Yori swipe Yori’s ship, a magnificent solar sailer that riders on a beam of light.&nbsp; This truly is one of the more beautiful moments in the film, as the design of the sailer is just gorgeous.&nbsp; Tron takes down some of the soldiers that made it on to the sailer, and recognizes one as Flynn.&nbsp; And again, we get another kind of weird threesome moment with Flynn, Tron, and Yori.&nbsp; Flynn recognizes Yori as Laura, and starts circling her, taking her all in.&nbsp; A somewhat creeped out Yori retreats behind Tron, Tron takes the whole high school jock “stay away from my woman” body posture, and Flynn backs off.&nbsp; But Yori, still kinda intrigued by this newcomer, coyly peeks out from behind Tron.&nbsp; I just love the whole body language/non-verbal acting in this moment, as it helps clearly define the relationships between these three.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />They’re almost at the MCP when they’re attacked by Zark’s command ship.&nbsp; Flynn and Yori are captured, and Tron is missing, presumed dead.&nbsp; Zark leaves Flynn and Yori to their fates, as his command ship, and all on board, will be deleted when they report to the MCP.&nbsp; But, Flynn uses his mighty user powers to keep Yori alive and the ship functional.&nbsp; <br /><br />Tron makes his way to the MCP on foot, but finds Zark guarding the entrance.&nbsp; Tron and Zark throw down with their flying discs in a battle royale, which Tron eventually wins by running his disc down the middle of Zark’s head.&nbsp; Seriously, with the sparks that fly off, it looks like Zark’s brains are flying out.&nbsp; But, the MCP revives Zark as a 10 foot tall zombie Zark to resume the battle!&nbsp; Tron gets away and begins his assault on the MCP.&nbsp; <br /><br />But the MCP is too heavily fortified!&nbsp; Flynn and Yori, watching from above, get an idea.&nbsp; Flynn has Yori maneuver the ship towards the MCP.&nbsp; Flynn decides to leap into the beam that the MCP uses to communicate with the outside world.&nbsp; That will probably distract the MCP long enough for Tron to take his shot.&nbsp; The plan works, Tron defeats the MCP, and Tron and Yori celebrate the system being free again.<br /><br />This also kicks Flynn back out into the real world.&nbsp; The ol’ dot matrix printer begins spitting out the original source code to Space Paranoids...complete with Flynn’s seal of authorship.&nbsp; Not only did the printer spit it out, but with its dying gasp, the MCP broadcast it to every terminal in ENCOM headquarters.&nbsp; Dillinger comes into work the morning, sees it on his desk terminal, and sits down, defeated.&nbsp;&nbsp; Flynn gets Dillinger’s old job, and with Alan and Laura’s help, begins shaping ENCOM into a friendly, creative computer company once again.&nbsp; The end.&nbsp; <br /><br />And that’s <i>Tron</i>.&nbsp; Man, I still dig this movie.&nbsp; My main gripe with it is, it introduces a lot of great sci-fi concepts, but never really does anything with them.&nbsp; The one that always gets me are the discs.&nbsp; When Flynn is given his disc, he’s told it’s his identity disc.&nbsp; Anything you say or do is recorded on that disc.&nbsp; If you lose your disc, or it is destroyed, you’re toast.&nbsp; So, of course, they devise an entire system of ritualized combat using these discs as the primary weapon.&nbsp; Just never made sense to me.<br /><br />But I am glad that <i>Tron</i> has been rediscovered over the years as a cult classic.&nbsp; It has so many good ideas, and such a good design, that it’s a shame that it never really did anything with it.&nbsp; <br /><br />But maybe they’ve finally do something with it, in its 28-years later sequel.&nbsp; <br /><br />Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235887.post-61722109442137685092017-12-04T00:30:00.000-07:002017-12-04T00:30:45.555-07:00Avengers: Infinity War Trailer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VosYAia7mJ0/WiSoMAzKajI/AAAAAAAACOQ/L02ZnZcKSNMYTquZrsL1ehO6rEbzvvRVACLcBGAs/s1600/Avengers-InfinityWar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Avengers: Infinity War Poster" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1081" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VosYAia7mJ0/WiSoMAzKajI/AAAAAAAACOQ/L02ZnZcKSNMYTquZrsL1ehO6rEbzvvRVACLcBGAs/s640/Avengers-InfinityWar.jpg" title="Avengers: Infinity War Poster" width="432" /></a></div><br />How did we get here?<br /><br />In the late 1990s, Marvel Comics was growing tired of selling off the movie rights to their characters, only for no movie to be made.&nbsp; So they hatched the idea for Marvel Entertainment.&nbsp; Rather than simply license out their characters, they would provide the movie studio with a complete script, character designs, a director...essentially walk the studio through the pre-production process.&nbsp; It was a success, with the strategy finally getting <i>X-Men </i>and <i>Spider-Man </i>on the big screen.<br /><br />But it didn't take long for Marvel to start thinking that, if they're doing all this work, they may as well just make the darn movies themselves.&nbsp; And so plans began to create Marvel Studios, a movie studio dedicated to making adaptations of Marvel characters.&nbsp; As Marvel Studios' president Kevin Feige described the reasoning, "Yeah, we didn't have the rights to our heavy hitters like <i>X-Men </i>and <i>Spider-Man</i>, but we had the rights to Marvel's 800 other characters.&nbsp; Could all of them sustain their own film franchise?&nbsp; No.&nbsp; But a lot of them could...."&nbsp; Once financing was secured, Marvel held a panel at the world-famous San Diego Comic Con to announce the creation of Marvel Studios, and their first three films would be <i>Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk</i>, and <i>Ant-Man</i>.<br /><br />Marvel Studios made their entry with <i>Iron Man </i>in the summer of 2008, and it was a smash hit.&nbsp; But the very first of those post-credit stingers got everyone buzzing, when Nick Fury appeared to invite Tony Stark to take part in "the Avengers Initiative."&nbsp; Fans started salivating.&nbsp; "Oh my God, are they really going to do <i>The Avengers</i> some day?"&nbsp; I've heard conflicting stories.&nbsp; <i>Iron Man</i>'s director Jon Favreau said at the time that there were no plans to do <i>The Avengers </i>yet...he just slipped that in to be one hell of an Easter egg.&nbsp; In publicity today, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says yup, it was the plan from day one.<br /><br />Either way, it immediately became the plan.&nbsp; Before 2008 was out, Marvel Studios had announced "Phase I."&nbsp; <i>Ant-Man</i> was put on the back burner, replaced with <i>Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America</i>, before all building up to <i>The Avengers</i>.&nbsp; It was an announcement to get Marvel some serious respect in Hollywood...enough that they were snapped up by Disney in 2009.<br /><br />And here we are.&nbsp; It's 10 years later, Marvel Studios has almost 20 films to their name, and along the way, they created the new concept of the cinematic universe, where all their characters share the same fictional world.&nbsp; Well, they didn't really create it, as many will say that Universal created it with their monsters back in the 30s and 40s.&nbsp; In which case, then, we can say that Marvel Studio updated the concept quite well for the 21st Century.<br /><br />The culmination of that 10 years of work is what brings us to <i>Avengers: Infinity War</i>.&nbsp; Marvel Studios wants <i>Avengers: Infinity War </i>to be significant in 2 ways.&nbsp; Firstly, 2018 will be the 10th anniversary of Marvel Studios, so <i>Infinity War </i>is to serve as their 10th anniversary party.&nbsp; Secondly, they promise that it'll provide what many superhero film franchises rarely receive:&nbsp; an end.&nbsp; They keep telling us that this will provide a conclusion to what began when Tony Stark uttered those words, "I am Iron Man."&nbsp; Does this mean it's the end for Captain America, Thor, et al?&nbsp; We'll know when the film comes out this May.<br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6ZfuNTqbHE8" width="560"></iframe></center><br /><br />A lot of the McGuffins in Marvel films -- the Tesseract in <i>Captain America: The First Avengers</i> and <i>The Avengers</i>, the Aether in <i>Thor: The Dark World</i>, the Eye of Agamoto in <i>Doctor Strange</i> -- have been revealed to be the fabled Infinity Stones.&nbsp; These are gems of immense power, left over from the creation of the Universe, and to possess all six means to gain omnipotence.&nbsp; And that's exactly why the alien warlord Thanos covets them, and comes to Earth looking for them.&nbsp; To fend of Thanos, it's going to take the combined efforts of every hero the Marvel Cinematic Universe has shown us so far.&nbsp;<br /><br />This trailer just looks amazing.&nbsp; As we can see, it looks as though a lot of it will take place in Wakanda, the homeland of the Black Panther.&nbsp; At least, one of our biggest battles is going to be there.&nbsp; This truly looks to be the biggest film Marvel Studios has put together so far.<br /><br />We never thought we'd see this many heroes sharing the screen.&nbsp; And now, here they are.&nbsp;<br /><br /><i>Avengers: Infinity War</i> hits theatres May 4.&nbsp; Mark Cappishttps://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210noreply@blogger.com0